English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Background  Rodents of the genus  Rattus  are among the most pervasive and successful invasive species, causing major vicissitudes in native ecological communities. A broad and flexible generalist diet has been suggested as key to the invasion success of  Rattus  spp. Here, we use an indirect approach to better understand foraging niche width, plasticity, and overlap within and between introduced  Rattus  spp. in anthropogenic habitats and natural humid forests of Madagascar.    Results  Based on stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values measured in hair samples of 589 individual rodents, we found that  Rattus rattus  had an extremely wide foraging niche, encompassing the isotopic space covered by a complete endemic forest-dwelling Malagasy small mammal community. Comparisons of Bayesian standard ellipses, as well as (multivariate) mixed-modeling analyses, revealed that the stable isotope niche of  R .  rattus  tended to change seasonally and differed between natural forests and anthropogenic habitats, indicating plasticity in feeding niches. In co-occurrence,  R .  rattus  and  Rattus norvegicus  partitioned feeding niches. Isotopic mismatch of signatures of individual  R .  rattus  and the habitat in which they were captured, indicate frequent dispersal movements for this species between natural forest and anthropogenic habitats.    Conclusions  Since  R .  rattus  are known to transmit a number of zoonoses, potentially affecting communities of endemic small mammals, as well as humans, these movements presumably increase transmission potential. Our results suggest that due to their generalist diet and potential movement between natural forest and anthropogenic habitats,  Rattus  spp. might affect native forest-dependent Malagasy rodents as competitors, predators, and disease vectors. The combination of these effects helps explain the invasion success of  Rattus  spp. and the detrimental effects of this genus on the endemic Malagasy rodent fauna.    Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12898-017-0125-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Broad and flexible stable isotope niches in invasive non-native Rattus spp. in anthropogenic and natural habitats of central eastern Madagascar