Effects of forest disturbance on the fitness of an endemic rodent in a biodiversity hotspot
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
Praomys delectorum occurs abundantly in both disturbed and intact forests in the
Ukaguru Mountains within the Eastern Arc Mountains (EAM), Morogoro, Tanzania.
While previous studies have reported that anthropogenic disturbances such as grazing, wood cutting, and harvesting have a positive effect on the population density
of P. delectorum, the impact of habitat disturbance on its demographic traits is still
unknown. We performed a capture–mark–recapture study in both disturbed and intact forests from June 2018 to February 2020 in order to investigate the effects of habitat disturbance on abundance and two demographic traits: survival and maturation of P. delectorum in the Ukaguru Mountains. We found no variation in abundance or maturation between intact and disturbed forests, but habitat type did affect survival. However, this effect was sex-dependent since female survival was higher in
disturbed forests, while male survival remained similar across the two forest types
potentially due to differences in predation pressure or food availability between the
two habitats. Continuous demographic monitoring of P. delectorum in EAM is necessary given that the increasing human population surrounding the landscape is lead-
ing to higher deforestation rates and expansion of the pine plantation in the forest
reserve.
Description
Original research
Keywords
Biodiversity hotspot, Capture–mark–recapture, Eastern Arc Mountains, Population density, Praomys delectorum, Survival and maturation rate
Citation
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7214