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Importance of latrine communication in European rabbits shifts along a rural–to–urban gradient

  • Background: Information transfer in mammalian communication networks is often based on the deposition of excreta in latrines. Depending on the intended receiver(s), latrines are either formed at territorial boundaries (between-group communication) or in core areas of home ranges (within-group communication). The relative importance of both types of marking behavior should depend, amongst other factors, on population densities and social group sizes, which tend to differ between urban and rural wildlife populations. Our study is the first to assess (direct and indirect) anthropogenic influences on mammalian latrine-based communication networks along a rural-to-urban gradient in European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) living in urban, suburban and rural areas in and around Frankfurt am Main (Germany). Results: The proportion of latrines located in close proximity to the burrow was higher at rural study sites compared to urban and suburban ones. At rural sites, we found the largest latrines and highest latrine densities close to the burrow, suggesting that core marking prevailed. By contrast, latrine dimensions and densities increased with increasing distance from the burrow in urban and suburban populations, suggesting a higher importance of peripheral marking. Conclusions: Increased population densities, but smaller social group sizes in urban rabbit populations may lead to an increased importance of between-group communication and thus, favor peripheral over core marking. Our study provides novel insights into the manifold ways by which man-made habitat alterations along a rural-to-urban gradient directly and indirectly affect wildlife populations, including latrine-based communication networks.

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Author:Madlen Ziege, David BierbachORCiDGND, Svenja Bischoff, Anna-Lena Brandt, Mareike Brix, Bastian Greshake TzovarasORCiDGND, Stefan Merker, Sandra Wenninger, Torsten Wronski, Martin PlathORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-446994
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12898-016-0083-y
Pubmed Id:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27301694
Parent Title (German):BMC ecology
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2016
Date of first Publication:2016/06/14
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2017/11/01
Tag:Chemical communication; Communication center; Core marking; Localized defecation; Urban ecology
Volume:16
Issue:29
Page Number:12
Note:
© 2016 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
HeBIS-PPN:427855314
Institutes:Biowissenschaften / Biowissenschaften
Biowissenschaften / Institut für Ökologie, Evolution und Diversität
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 59 Tiere (Zoologie) / 590 Tiere (Zoologie)
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Sammlung Biologie / Sondersammelgebiets-Volltexte
Open-Access-Publikationsfonds:Biowissenschaften
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0