Abstract
We studied the movement of the marsupial Dromiciops gliroides by means of an innovative approach that makes use of two complementary techniques, specifically devised for the monitoring of small animals that live in dense forests. Despite playing a key role in the Southern Temperate Forest of Patagonia, very little is known about the ecology and habitat use of this “almost threatened species” (according to IUCN), the only living representative of an entire order (Microbiotheria). We present here novel results about the movement and explored area of D. gliroides at different spatio-temporal scales using complementary approaches: the spool-and-line and a radiotelemetry techniques. Both are complemented in such a way that, while the first one allows to obtain trajectories at small spatial scale with very precise resolution for relatively short periods, the second one provides longer temporal records at larger spatial scales adding temporal resolution. We show in this work very precise nocturnal trajectories unknown so far of 41 individuals of D. gliroides using spool and line, analyzing several of their statistical properties. For instance, from the turning angle distribution we find that, after release, the animals followed paths that exhibited little angular deviation between steps. In a complementary way, using radiotelemetry, we were able to study the velocity distribution of their movements, assessing a most probable value of \(2.0\pm 0.8\) m/min and a median value of \(7.2\pm 2.8\) m/min. The combination of both approaches brings new opportunities for studying other cryptic and poorly known forest dwellers.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Available for free download from: https://airspy.com/download.
References
Amico G, Aizen MA (2000) Mistletoe seed dispersal by a marsupial. Nature 408:929–930
Amico GC, Rodríguez-Cabal MA, Aizen MA (2009) The potential key seed-dispersing role of the arboreal marsupial Dromiciops gliroides. Acta Oecol 35:8–13
Amico G, Sasal Y, Vidal-Russell R, Aizen M, Morales J (2017) Consequences of disperser behaviour for seedling establishment of a mistletoe species. Austral Ecol 42:900–907
Amlaner CJ, MacDonald DW (1980) Handbook on biotelemetry and radio tracking. Pergamon Press, Oxford
Balazote Oliver A (2017) Efectos del comportamiento de dispersores en la dinámica de plantas: Selección de hábitat y patrones de movimiento del monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides) y sus efectos en la dinámica poblacional de la planta parásita aérea Tristerix corymbosus. Ph. D. thesis, Universidad Nacional del Comahue
Barros VR, Cordón V, Moyano C, Méndez R, Forquera J, Pizzio O (1983) Cartas de precipitación de la zona oeste de las provincias de Río Negro y Neuquén
Boonstra R, Craine ITM (1986) Natal nest location and small mammal tracking with a spool and line technique. Can J Zool 64:1034–1036
Broughton SK, Dickman CR (1991) The effect of supplementary food on home range of the southern brown bandicoot, Isoodon obesulus (Marsupialia: Peramelidae). Aust J Ecol 16:71–78
Cabrera AL (1976) Enciclopedia argentina de agricultura y jardinería: Regiones fitogeográficas argentinas. ACME, Buenos Aires
Calzolari G (2013) Uso de micro-hábitats por el monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides) y posibles consecuencias para la dinámica del quintral (Tristerix corymbosus). Biology degree thesis, Universidad Nacional del Comahue
Carlo TA, Morales JM (2008) Inequalities in frugivory and seed dispersal: consequences of bird behaviour, neighbourhood density and landscape aggregation. J Ecol 96:609–618
Carlo T, Aukema J, Morales JM (2007) Plant-frugivore interactions as spatially explicit networks: Integrating frugivore foraging with fruiting plant spatial patterns. Seed dispersal: theory and its application in a changing world, CABI, Wallingford, UK, chap 6:369–390
Cunha AA, Vieira MV (2002) Support diameter, incline, and vertical movements of four didelphid marsupials in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. J Zool 258:419–426
Di Virgilio A, Amico GC, Morales JM (2014) Behavioral traits of the arboreal marsupial Dromiciops gliroides during Tristerix corymbosus fruiting season. J Mammal 95:1189–1198
Díaz GB, Ojeda RA (2000) Libro Rojo de los mamíferos amenazados de la Argentina. Sociedad Argentina para el Estudio de los Mamíferos, SAREM, Mendoza, Argentina
Fontúrbel FE, Salazar DA (2016) Beyond habitat structure: landscape heterogeneity explains the monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides) occurrence and behavior at habitats dominated by exotic trees. Integr Zool 11:413–421
Fontúrbel FE, Silva-Rodriguez EA, Cárdenas NH, Jiménez JE (2009) Spatial ecology of monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides) in a fragmented landscape of southern Chile. Mamm Biol 75:1–9
Fontúrbel F, Franco M, Rodríguez-Cabal MA, Rivarola MD, Amico GC (2012) Ecological consistency across space: a synthesis of the ecological aspects of Dromiciops gliroides in Argentina and Chile. Naturwissenschaften 99:873–881
Forero-Medina G, Vieira M (2009) Perception of a fragmented landscape by neotropical marsupials: effects of body mass and environmental variables. J Trop Ecol 25:53–62
Glen DRA, Cruz J (2009) An improved method of microhabitat assessment relevant to predation risk. Ecol Res 25:311–314
Gottwald J, Zeidler R, Friess N, Ludwig M, Reudenbach C, Nauss T (2019) Introduction of an automatic and open-source radio-tracking system for small animals. Methods Ecol Evol 1:1–10
Gurovich Y, Stannard HJ, Old JM (2015) The presence of the marsupial Dromiciops gliroides in Parque Nacional Los Alerces, Chubut, Southern Argentina, after the synchronous maturation and flowering of native bamboo and subsequent rodent irruption. Revista Chilena de Historia Nat 88:17
Hawkins CE, MacDonald DW (1992) A spool-and-line method for investigating the movements of badgers. Mammalia 56:322–325
Hernández I (2010) Desplazamientos de la serpiente de cascabel Crotalus catalinensis (Viperidae) a través de su ciclo anual, en la isla Santa Catalina, Golfo de California, México. Bachelor’s thesis
Javaid R, Qureshi R, Enam RN (2015) RSSI based node localization using trilateration in wireless sensor network. Bahr Univ J Inf Commun Technol 8:2
Johnson DH (1980) The comparison of usage and availability measurements for evaluating resource preference. Ecology 61:65–71
Kareiva P, Wennergren U (1995) Connecting landscape patterns to ecosystem and population processes. Nature 373:299–302
Kays R, Tilak S, Crofoot M, Fountain T, Obando D, Ortega A, Kuemmeth F, Mandel J, Swenson G, Lambert T, Hirsch B, Wikelski M (2011) Tracking animal location and activity with an automated radio telemetry system in a tropical rainforest. Comput J 54:1931–1948
Khotpathoom T, Vu TT, Bhumpakphan N, Sukmasuang R, Bumrungsri S (2020) Using radiotelemetry to identify the home range and daily movement of a living fossil: the Laotian rock rat (Laonastes aenigmamus). Mamm Biol 100:377–384
Leiner NO, Silva WR (2007) Seasonal variation in the diet of the Brazilian slender opossum (Marmosops paulensis) in a montane Atlantic forest area, southeastern Brazil. J Mammal 88(1):158–164
Loretto D, Vieira M (2008) Use of space by the marsupial Marmosops incanus (Didelphimorphia, Didelphidae) in the Atlantic Forest. Mammalian Biology - Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde 73(4):255–261
Magrach A, Rodríguez-Pérez J, Piazzon M, Santamaría L (2015) Divergent effects of forest edges on host distribution and seed disperser activity influence mistletoe distribution and recruitment. J Ecol 103(6):1475–1486. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12472
Mendel SM, Vieira MV (2003) Movement distances and density estimation of small mammals using the spool-and-line technique. Acta Theriol 48(3):289–300
Mennill DJ, Doucet SM, Ward KAA, Maynard DF, Otis B, Burt JM (2012) A novel digital telemetry system for tracking wild animals: a field test for studying mate choice in a lekking tropical bird. Methods Ecol Evol 3(4):663–672. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-210X.2012.00206.x
Mermoz M, Martin C (1986) Mapa de vegetación del Parque y la Reserva Nacional Nahuel Huapi, vol 22. Secretaría de Ciencias y Técnica de la Nación
Miles MA, de Souza AA, Póvoa MM (1981) Mammal tracking and nest location in Brazilian forest with an improved spool-and-line device. J Zool 195(3):331–347
Morales JM, Carlo TA (2006) The effects of plant distribution and frugivore density on the scale and shape of dispersal kernels. Ecology 87:1489–1496
Morales J, Rivarola MD, Amico GC, Carlo TA (2012) Neighborhood effects on seed dispersal by frugivores: testing theory with a mistletote marsupial system in Patagonia. Ecology 93:741–748
Morrone JJ (2015) Biogeographical regionalisation of the Andean region. Zootaxa 3936:207–236
Moura MC, Caparelli AC, Freitas SR, Vieira MV (2005) Scale-dependent habitat selection in three didelphid marsupials using the spool-and-line technique in the Atlantic forest of Brazil. J Trop Ecol 21:337–342
Nams VO, Bourgeois M (2004) Fractal analysis measures habitat use at different spatial scales: an example with American marten. Can J Zool 82(11):1738–1747
Nathan R, Getz WM, Revilla E, Holyoak M, Kadmon R, Saltz D, Smouse PE (2008) A movement ecology paradigm for unifying organismal movement research. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(49):19052–9. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0800375105, https://www.pnas.org/content/105/49/19052
Oguejiofor OS, Okorogu VN, Adewale A, Osuesu BO (2013) Outdoor localization system using RSSI measurement of wireless sensor network. Int J Innovat Technol Explor Eng (IJITEE) 2:2
Onoyama K, Saitoh T (1991) Spool-and-line tracking of the vole Clethrionomys rufocanus bedfordiae, with special reference to its home range. Honyurui Kagaku 30:131–142
Prevedello JA, Vieira MV (2010) Plantation rows as dispersal routes: A test with didelphid marsupials in the Atlantic Forest. Biol Conserv 143:131–135
Prevedello JA, Rodrigues RG, Monteiro ELA (2009) Vertical use of space by the marsupial Micoureus paraguayanus (Didelphimorphia, Didelphidae) in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. Acta Theriol 54:259–266
Prevedello JA, Rodrigues RG, Monteiro ELA (2010) Habitat selection by two species of small mammals in the Atlantic Forest Brazil: comparing results from live trapping and spool-and-line tracking. Mammal Biol 75:106–114
Ramos-Fernandez G, Mateos JL, Miramontes O, Cocho G, Larralde H, Ayala-Orozco B (2004) Lévy walk patterns in the foraging movements of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 55:223–230
Razafindratsima OH, Jones TA, Dunham AE (2014) Patterns of movement and seed dispersal by three lemur species. Am J Primatol 76:84–96
Rodríguez-Cabal MA, Aizen MA, Novaro AJ (2007) Habitat fragmentation disrupts a plant-disperser mutualism in the temperate forest of South America. Biol Conserv 139:195–202
Ríos-Uzeda B, Brigatti E, Vieira M (2019) Lévy like patterns in the small-scale movements of marsupials in an unfamiliar and risky environment. Sci Rep 9:2737
Rivarola MD (2009) Interacción entre un muérdago y un marsupial: estructura poblacional y área de acción de Dromiciops gliroides, y caracterización de la remoción de frutos de Tristerix corymbosus. Bachelor’s Thesis, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina
Sasal Y, Morales JM (2013) Linking frugivore behavior to plant population dynamics. Oikos 122:95–103
Schradin C, Pillay N (2005) Demography of the striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio) in the succulent karoo. Mammal Biol 70(2):84–92
Sikes RS, Gannon WL (2011) Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the use of wild mammals in research. J Mammal 92:235–253
Steinwald MC, Swanson BJ, Waser PM (2006) Effects of spool-and-line tracking on small desert mammals. Southwestern Nat 51:71–78
Stewart R, Crockett L, Atkinson D, Barlee K, Crawford D, Chalmers I, McLernon M, Sozer E (2015) A low-cost desktop software defined radio design environment using MATLAB, Simulink, and the RTL-SDR. IEEE Commun Mag 53:64–71
Tassino B, Estevan I, Pereira-Garbero R, Altesor P, Lacey E (2011) Space use by Río Negro tuco-tucos (Ctenomys rionegrensis): excursions and spatial overlap. Mammal Biol 76:143–147
Tozetti AM, Toledo LF (2005) Short-term movement and retreat sites of Leptodactylus labyrinthicus (Anura: Leptodactylidae) during the breeding season: A spool-and-line tracking study. J Herpetol 39(4):640–644
Turchin P (1998) Quantitative analysis of movement: Measuring and modeling population redistribution in animals and plants. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts, USA
Weiser AW, Orchan Y, Nathan R, Charter M, Weiss AJ, Toledo S (2016) Characterizing the accuracy of a self-synchronized reverse-GPS wildlife localization system. In: 2016 15th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN), pp 1–12
Acknowledgements
We gratefully thank Pablo Costanzo Caso and Cristian Roddick for their support, Andrés Bertoni for helping in the field work and discussions about data analysis, and Juan Manuel Morales for fruitful discussions. We also acknowledge the Municipal Park Llao Llao for granting permits to work in the area. Partial financial support was obtained from several grants: CONICET (PIP 112-2017-0100008 CO, PIP 112-2015-0100296), Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (SIIP 06/C546), Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro (PI UNRN 40-B-745) and ANPCyT (PICT-2018-02509, PICT-2018-1181).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Handling editor: Emmanuel Serrano.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kazimierski, L.D., Catalano, N.E., Laneri, K. et al. Trajectory assessment of the vulnerable marsupial Dromiciops gliroides in the Patagonian temperate forest. Mamm Biol 101, 715–727 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-021-00106-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-021-00106-5