Population increase and synurbization of the yellow-necked mouse Apodemus flavicollis in some wooded areas of Warsaw agglomeration, Poland, in the years 1983\u20132018

Grzegorz Lesiński,Dagny Krauze-Gryz,Przemysław Stolarz,Jakub Gryz

doi:10.1007/s11252-020-01046-7

Grzegorz Lesiński, Dagny Krauze-Gryz + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-01046-7

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Abstract

Studies on the contribution of the yellow-necked mouse Apodemus flavicollis and of other vertebrates to the diet of the tawny owl Strix aluco were carried out in Warsaw (central Poland) in the years 1983–2018. The frequency of the yellow-necked mouse in owl pellets increased at the break of the 20th and 21st centuries, particularly in some woodlands in the peri-urban area of the agglomeration. In the second half of the first decade of the twenty-first century, this mouse species colonised a park in the city centre. The yellow-necked mouse may become an important competitor for the synurbic population of the striped field mouse Apodemus agrarius.

Highlights

The yellow-necked mouse Apodemus flavicollis (Melchior, 1834), widespread in most parts of Europe and the Middle East (Amori et al 2016), is a species associated with woodlands and mature forests (Pucek et al 1993, Mazurkiewicz and Rajska-Jurgiel 1998; Marsh and Harris 2000; Juškaitis 2002), where it often dominates the terrestrial rodent communities (Pucek et al 1993; Mazurkiewicz and Rajska-Jurgiel 1998), but prefers forest edges (Montgomery 1999; Hille and Mortelliti 2010)
The species has a broad food niche that includes plants, fungi and animal prey (Drożdż 1966; Abt and Bock 1998). This species sometimes but rarely penetrates habitats modified by human activity, such as agrocoenoses (Hoffmeyer 1973; Popov 1993) and urban areas, e.g., in Vienna, the yellow-necked mouse has been reported to occur in parks and green spaces (Mitter et al 2015)
The same is true for this species in the Czech Republic and Germany – see the examples from Prague (Mikulová and Frynta 2001) and from Berlin (Elvers and Elvers 1984)

Summary

Introduction

Studies on small terrestrial mammals inhabiting urban areas have been carried out in various regions of the world (Andrzejewski et al 1978; Dickman and Doncaster 1987; Goszczyński et al 1993; Chernousova 1996; Baker et al 2003; Mahan and O’Connel 2005; Gryz et al 2008; Cavia et al 2009; Garden et al 2010; Gomes et al 2011; Khlyap et al 2012; Łopucki et al 2013; Klimant et al 2017; Łopucki and Kitowski 2017) These groups of animals, which have relatively low dispersal abilities, find it difficult to penetrate areas strongly modified by human activity. During density peaks, caused by oak mast years, the species migrates to arable land and orchards (Gryz et al 2019; Gryz and Krauze-Gryz 2019)

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