DOES MOONLIGHT SUPPRESS OR STIMULATE ACTIVITY OF A TROPICAL FOREST SMALL MAMMAL
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4257/oeco.2023.2702.11Palavras-chave:
activity pattern, lunarphobia, marsupial, predation risk, Tropical forestResumo
Small nocturnal mammals must balance their activity to maximize foraging efficiency while reducing vulnerability to predators, and moonlight has been widely investigated as a predation risk cue. Didelphis aurita, a nocturnal marsupial, can act as both a competitor and an intraguild predator, and as a prey, increasing or reducing activity under this condition, respectively. We evaluated the effect of moonlight, temperature, and age on the bimodal activity pattern of D. aurita in an Atlantic Forest area, southeastern Brazil. Opossums were more active at low light conditions and in colder nights in the second activity peak. Adults were more active in the second peak, when compared to juveniles and subadults. We suggest that the observed behavior can be a consequence of a preference to periods of low light conditions, to increase foraging efficiency, since D. aurita display features that reflect specialization to scotopic vision such as the tapetum lucidum.
Referências
Albanesi, S. A., Jayat, J. P., & Brown, A. D. 2016. Patrones de actividad de mamíferos de medio y gran porte en el pedemonte de Yungas del noroeste argentino. Mastozoologia Neotropical, 23(2), 335–358.
Aprigliano, P. 2003. · Heterogeneidade espacial e variação temporal do microclima e seus efeitos sobre a ocorrência de três espécies de marsupiais na Mata Atlântica. Master thesis. Departamento de Ecologia da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. p. 121.
Barrera-Niño, V., & Sánchez, F. 2014. Forrajeo de Didelphis pernigra (Mammalia: Didelphidae) en un área suburbana de la Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia. Therya, 5, 289–302.
Botts, R. T., Eppert, A. A., Wiegman, T. J., Blankenship, S. R., Rodriguez, A., Wagner, A. P., Ullrich, S. E., Allen, G. R., Garley, W. M., Asselin, E. M. & Mooring, M. S. 2021. Does moonlight increase predation risk for elusive mammals in Costa Rica? Tropical Conservation Science, 13(1), 1-21. DOI: 10.1177/1940082920952405
Burnham, K. P., & Anderson, D. R. 2002. Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach, 2nd edn. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Crespo, R. F., Linhart, S. B., Burns, R. J., & Mitchell, G. C. 1972. Foraging behavior of the common vampire bat related to moonlight. Journal of Mammalogy, 53(2), 366-368.
Ferreira, M. S., & Vieira, M. V. 2014a. Activity pattern of the neotropical marsupial Didelphis aurita in south-eastern Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 30(2), 169–172.
Ferreira, M. S., & Vieira, M. V. 2014b. An efficient timing device to record activity patterns of small mammals in the field. Mammalia, 80(1), 117-119.
Ferreira, M. S., Vieira, M. V., Cerqueira, R., & Dickman. C. R. 2016. Seasonal dynamics with compensatory effects regulate populations of tropical forest marsupials: a 16-year study. Oecologia, 182, 1095–1106.
Ferreira, M. S. 2022. Activity Patterns of American Marsupials. In: N. C. Cáceres (Eds.), American and Australasian Marsupials. Springer.
Fonseca, G. A. B., & Robinson, J. G. 1990. Forest size and structure: competitive and predatory effects on small mammal communities. Biological Conservation, 53, 265–294. DOI: 10.1016/0006-3207(90)90097-9
Haeussler, U., & Erkert, H. 1978. Different direct effects of light intensity on the entrained activity rhythm in neotropical bats (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae). Behavioural processes, 3(3), 223-239.
Harmsen, B. J., Foster, R. J., Silver, S. C., Ostrod, L. E. T., & Doncasterc, C. P. 2011. Jaguar and puma activity patterns in relation to their main prey. Mammalian Biology, 76, 320–324. DOI: 10.1016/j.mambio.2010.08.007
Hokoç, J. N., Lima, S. M. A., Moraes, A. M. M., & Ahnelt, P. 2012. A Visão em Marsupiais: Características e Evolução. In: N. C. Cáceres (Eds.), Os Marsupiais do Brasil: Biologia, Ecologia e Conservação (2a. ed.). pp. 159-171. Campo Grande: Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul (Ed UFMS).
Huck, M., Juárez, C. P., & Fernandez-Duque, E. 2016. Relationship between moonlight and nightly activity patterns of the ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and some of its prey species in Formosa, northern Argentina. Mammalian Biology, 82, 57–64. DOI: 10.1016/j.mambio.2016.10.005
Karger, D. N., Wilson, A. M., Mahony, C., Zimmermann, N. E., & Jetz, W. 2021. Global daily 1 km land surface precipitation based on cloud cover-informed downscaling. Scientific Data, 8, 307. DOI: 10.1038/s41597-021-01084-6
Krieg, J. 2021. Influence of moon and clouds on night illumination in two different spectral ranges. Scientific Report, 11, 20642. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-98060-2
Macedo, J., Loretto, D., Mello, M. C. S., Freitas, S. R., Vieira, M. V., & Cerqueira, R. 2007. História natural dos mamíferos de uma área perturbada do Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. In: C. Cronemberger, & Viveiros de Castro, E. B. (Eds.). pp. 165-181. Ciência e Conservação na Serra dos Órgãos. Brasília, IBAMA.
Moura, M. C., Vieira, M. V., & Cerqueira, R. 2009. Occasional intraguild predation structuring small mammal assemblages: the marsupial Didelphis aurita in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. Austral Ecology, 34, 481–489. DOI: 10.1111/j.1442-9993.2009.01948.x
Pratas-Santiago, L. P., Gonçalves, A. L. S., da Maia Soares, A. M. V., & Spironello, W. R. 2016. The moon cycle effect on the activity patterns of ocelots and their prey. Journal of Zoology, 229(4), 275–283. DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12359
Prugh, L. R., & Golden, C. D. 2013. Does moonlight increase predation risk? Meta-analysis reveals divergent responses of nocturnal mammals to lunar cycles. Journal of Animal Ecology, 83, 504–514. DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.12148
R Core Team (2021) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R foundation for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria
Silva, K.V., Kenup, C. F., Kreischer, C., Fernandez, F. A. S., & Pires, A. S. 2018. Who let the dogs out? Occurrence, population size and daily activity of domestic dogs in an urban Atlantic Forest reserve. Perspective in Ecology and Conservation, 16(4), 228-233. DOI: 10.1016/j.pecon.2018.09.001
Srbek-Araujo, A. C., & Chiarello, A. G. 2008. Domestic dogs in Atlantic forest preserves of south-eatern Brazil: a camera-trapping study on patterns of entrance and site occupancy rates. Brazilian Journal of Biology, 68, 771–779. DOI: 10.1590/S1519-L69842008000400011
US Naval Observatory (USNO), 2021. Fraction of the Moon Illuminated [WWW Document]. Astron. Appl. Dep. U.S. Nav. Obs. https://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/MoonFraction
Volchan, E., Vargas, C. D., da Franca, J. G., Pereira Jr, A., & Da Rocha Miranda, C. E. 2004. Tooled for task: Vision in the Opossum. Bioscience, 54, 189–194.
