Abstract
The long-distance movement of small terrestrial mammals ensures functional connectivity between populations. This movement depends on both landscape structure and the behavioural characteristics of species. However, the effect of landscape obstacles on the long-distance movement of small mammals is still not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to determine to what degree an impermeable landscape barrier affects the dispersion of mouse-sized rodents and shrews after long-distance movement on a scale of hundreds of metres. The hypothesis of the study was that small mammals would agglomerate along the barrier. From 2016 to 2018, small mammals were marked using biomarkers on a 1 ha pine forest plot 250 m from an impermeable road. Subsequently, the number, species composition, and distribution of marked individuals trapped along two parallel transects located deep in the forest and along the road were compared. No agglomeration of marked animals along the road was found and the most long-distance movement constituted exploratory excursions as opposed to dispersal. Over the study period, 37% of small mammals made excursions from the transect to the marking plot at a distance of 250–470 m. In some small mammal species, movement over distances of several hundreds of metres may represent excursions rather than dispersal, which should be considered in future studies. The range and prevalence of excursions observed in this study suggest that small mammals can potentially obtain information about their surroundings at the landscape level.
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Data availability
The dataset analysed in this study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This study was performed under a state contract with the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (theme 122021000082-0) and partly supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant no. 20-04-00164a). The author is grateful to PhD Ekaterina Malkova and PhD Kirill Maklakov for their valuable comments during the discussion of the manuscript.
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This study followed all applicable international, national, and institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals. The Bioethics Commission of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, approved this study (Approval No. 1, 20 January 2020).
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Tolkachev, O. Impermeable landscape barrier does not affect the dispersion of small mammals after long-distance movement on a scale of hundreds of metres. Mamm Biol 103, 329–338 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-023-00355-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-023-00355-6