ArticleBMC ecology2017
Broad and flexible stable isotope niches in invasive non-native Rattus spp. in anthropogenic and natural habitats of central eastern Madagascar.
Article in BMC ecology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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12 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Non-Native Rodents Dominate Understory Frugivory in the Eastern Caribbean Islands.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Host traits and environmental factors shape infection heterogeneity in wild rat-protozoa networks.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Differential Assembly of Core and Non-Core Host-Microbe Network Structures Along a Land-Use Change Gradient.Ecology letters · 2025Article
- Trophic niche of invasive murid rodents in urban and peri-urban areas in South Africa: insights from stable isotope analysis.BMC zoology · 2025Article
- Same parasite, diverging fates: distinct responses of tenrecs to Angiostrongylus cantonensis infection.Veterinary research communications · 2025Article
- Investigating Foraging Niches for Tenrecs, Bats, and Rodents at Betampona Réserve Naturelle Intégrale (Central Eastern Madagascar) Using Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopes in Fur and Bone.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Effect of Land-Use on Hantavirus Infection Among Introduced and Endemic Small Mammals of Madagascar.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Introducing IsoMad, a compilation of isotopic datasets for Madagascar.Scientific data · 2024Article
- The ratting of North America: A 350-year retrospective onScience advances · 2024Article
- Isotopic Niche Analysis of Long-Finned Pilot Whales (Biology · 2022Article
- Morphological variation ofBulletin de la Societe zoologique de France · 2022Article
- Isotopic evidence for niche partitioning and the influence of anthropogenic disturbance on endemic and introduced rodents in central Madagascar.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRodents 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.
resultsBased 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.
conclusionsSince 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.
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