The most consumed small mammal preys are scansorial and arboreal species, such as O. It is a generalist feeder, but it preys mostly on small mammals and insects. Strix rufipes is a medium-sized forest specialist owl (body length ~ 400 mm) that hunts and nests only within forests. Small mammals are important components of its diet, preying upon a wide variety of rodents, including A.
Glaucidium nana is a small habitat generalist raptor (body length ~ 200 mm) that hunts and/or nests within forests, shrublands, and around human settlements. The rodent species mentioned above are common prey to diverse raptors, such as the Austral pigmy owl ( Glaucidium nana) and the Rufous-legged owl ( Strix rufipes). Consequently, owl playbacks could be regarded as a promising rodent control tool, knowing that future studies would be critical to deeply understand differences between species in order to select the most effective predator cues.
Results showed that predator calls and environmental factors modified prey behavior depending not only on the predator species, but also on the rodent species. Moonlight and vegetation cover were also considered in the analyses, as they can modify perceived predation risk. We evaluated the effects of the treatments on the time allocated to three behaviors: feeding time, locomotor activity and vigilance. Using playbacks of raptor calls, we experimentally exposed rodents to three predation risk treatments: austral pygmy owl calls ( Glaucidium nana), rufous-legged owl calls ( Strix rufipes) and a control treatment (absence of owl calls).
Here, we used camera traps to study the behavior of rodent species native to the Chilean temperate forest ( Abrothrix spp., long-tailed pygmy rice rat Oligoryzomys longicaudatus) and an introduced rodent (black rat Rattus rattus). Despite predator signals being known to generally repel rodents, few field-based studies have compared the behavioral effects of several predators on different prey species, especially in Neotropical ecosystems. Ecologically based rodent management strategies are arising as a sustainable approach to rodent control, allowing us to preserve biodiversity while safeguarding human economic activities.
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