Abstract
The Norway rat is a globally distributed pest, known for its resilience to eradication and control programs. Efficient population control, especially in urban settings, is dependent on knowledge of rat demography and population ecology. We analyzed the relationship between four demographic outcomes, estimated by live-trapping data, and fine-scale environmental features measured at the capture site. Wounds, a proxy for agonistic interactions, were associated with mature individuals. Areas with environmental features favorable to rats, such as open sewers and unpaved earth, were associated with more mature individuals with a better body condition index. The control measures (environmental stressors) are likely to be disrupting the social structure of rat colonies, increasing the frequency and distribution of agonistic interactions, which were common in both sexes and maturity states. The relationship between the favorable environmental conditions and the demographic markers analyzed indicate possible targets for infestation control through environmental manipulation, and could be incorporated into current pest management programs to achieve long-term success. Our study indicate that urban interventions focused on removal of potential resources for rats could be potential long-term solutions by reducing the carrying capacity of the environment.
Highlights
The Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) is one of the most successful worldwide colonizers in evolutionary history (Morand et al 2015)
The Norway rat is present in all populated continents and its occurrence is closely associated with humans (Himsworth et al 2014), being able to colonize a diversity of man-made habitats (Glass et al 1989)
We captured a total of 118 individuals of Rattus norvegicus, of which three were removed from the analysis due to absence of sex or maturity data (Table 2)
Summary
The Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) is one of the most successful worldwide colonizers in evolutionary history (Morand et al 2015). The Norway rat is present in all populated continents and its occurrence is closely associated with humans (Himsworth et al 2014), being able to colonize a diversity of man-made habitats (urban areas, parklands, farmlands) (Glass et al 1989). Its adaptability to a variety of human-created habitats, urban areas (McKinney 2002), and their biological traits, make the Norway rat a ubiquitous pest. In agricultural areas they damage crops and contaminate stored harvests, and in urban environments they cause structural damage (e.g. gnawing on electric wires, damaging house structures by burrowing) and are reservoirs to several zoonotic pathogens. The estimated damage caused by rats reaches hundreds of billions of dollars annually, greater than the calculated damage caused by, for example, air pollution mortality (Parsons et al 2017)
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