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Coexisting small mammals display contrasting strategies for tolerating instability in arable habitat

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Abstract

Small mammal species are abundant and common throughout Europe and often utilise areas that are subject to agricultural land use. Arable farmland is an example of a frequently disturbed habitat, and this study questioned how such disturbance affected the two most common species in the region; one a habitat generalist and one a habitat specialist. We confirmed the prediction that wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus, a habitat generalist) would make use of a variety of habitats and that bank voles (Myodes glareolus, a habitat specialist) would make greater use of the more stable portions of the study site. We surveyed the study site intensively in order to test whether there was continuity in the spatial arrangement of individuals of both species, given the strategy employed. The spatial arrangement of wood mice varied with season but remained stable for bank voles. We found no association, positive or negative, between the spatial distributions of the two species, suggesting that spatial competitive exclusion did not occur. This work provides further insight into how these small mammal species are affected by agricultural disturbance and predictions can be made about how the species will respond under CAP Reform greening practices.

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Acknowledgments

Small mammal data collection was assisted by Shona Jack, Rebecca Sargeant, Jennifer Rowland, Karim Hussain, Sarah King and Nick Argiropoulos. Fields and supporting data were provided by the James Hutton Institute’s Centre for Sustainable Cropping at Balruddery Farm which is run by Cathy Hawes with the assistance of Euan Caldwell and John Bennett, Stuart Wale, Linda Nell and Paul Neave and Mark Young. Amanda Wilson is supported by PhD funding from the James Hutton Institute, the University of St Andrews (Natural Environment Research Council), the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and NFU Mutual. The James Hutton Institute is supported by the Scottish Government Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division. We thank two anonymous reviewers for feedback provided on a previous version of this manuscript.

Ethical standards

The ethical implications of this work were appraised before the study was conducted, and approval of our animal ethics committee was obtained. The Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act (2006) requires animal welfare to be given high priority. We ensured that potential for suffering was minimised by adhering to suggestions of Gurnell and Flowerdew (2006).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecological Sciences, The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 5DA, Scotland, UK

    Amanda C Wilson, Brian Fenton, Gaynor Malloch, Brian Boag & Graham S Begg

  2. Harold Mitchell Building, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9TH, UK

    Amanda C Wilson & Steve Hubbard

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  1. Amanda C Wilson
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  2. Brian Fenton
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Correspondence to Amanda C Wilson.

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Communicated by C. Gortázar

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Wilson, A.C., Fenton, B., Malloch, G. et al. Coexisting small mammals display contrasting strategies for tolerating instability in arable habitat. Eur J Wildl Res 60, 811–820 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-014-0852-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-014-0852-x

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