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RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Activity and movement of small mammal tick hosts at the urban fringes of Sydney, Australia

Casey L. Taylor https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8708-3405 A * , Dieter F. Hochuli https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6673-4475 A and Peter B. Banks https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4340-6495 A
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A School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia.

* Correspondence to: casey.taylor@sydney.edu.au

Handling Editor: Alexandra Carthey

Wildlife Research 50(11) 927-938 https://doi.org/10.1071/WR22069
Submitted: 7 April 2022  Accepted: 22 December 2022   Published: 10 February 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Context: Small mammals may traverse the urban fringe and use both natural and anthropogenic resources. In Australia, human commensal black rats (Rattus rattus) and native long-nosed bandicoots (Perameles nasuta) are important tick hosts, which can be found persisting at the urban fringe, leading to human–wildlife conflict.

Aims: We aimed to (1) determine the relative activity of small mammals in yards and associations with yard attributes, (2) compare activity of black rats and long-nosed bandicoots in bushland with activity in yards and (3) determine the proportion of black rats and long-nosed bandicoots that crossed the urban fringe. We predicted that native bandicoots would be more active in bushland habitats and that black rats would be more active in yards.

Methods: We used camera trapping in 56 residential yards, 18 of which were paired with adjacent bushland to measure small mammal activity in the two habitats. We recorded yard attributes and examined these associations using generalised linear models. We used isodar analysis to investigate black rat preferences of bushland habitat compared with yards, and we used Rhodamine B baiting to investigate movement at the urban fringe.

Key results: We found that black rats were the most active small mammal in residential yards and were detected in more yards than other small mammals, followed by bandicoots. Black rat activity was greater in yards adjacent to bushland, but no other yard attributes were associated with black rat and bandicoot activity. Overall, activity tended to be higher in bushland than in yards at paired locations.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest residential yards likely provide high-quality resources for long-nosed bandicoots. Low rates of movement at the urban fringe (6%), and a preference for bushland at low densities suggests that black rats may be synanthropic rather than commensal, occupying an urban niche but not depending on anthropogenic resources as expected.

Implications: Residential properties located adjacent to bushland may be exposed to increased black rat activity in yards. Future work should consider how introduced rats may be controlled in bushland to assist urban rat control efforts and avoid non-target impacts. Residential yards are likely to be important habitat for the persistence of long-nosed bandicoots in urban environments.

Keywords: anthropogenic, native wildlife, pest management, rodents, synanthropes, urban–bushland interface, urban ecology, ticks.


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