Common opossum population density in an agroforestry system in Bolivia
ABSTRACT The common opossum, Didelphis marsupialis thrives near human settlements. Understanding its ecology could help planning management decisions about this species, especially in anthropogenic landscapes. Yet, there are no density estimations for this species throughout its distribution range i...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Acta Amazonica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0044-59672020000300246&tlng=en |
| _version_ | 1798015107464167424 |
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| author | Camila BENAVIDES Alejandro ARCE Luis F. PACHECO |
| author_facet | Camila BENAVIDES Alejandro ARCE Luis F. PACHECO |
| author_sort | Camila BENAVIDES |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT The common opossum, Didelphis marsupialis thrives near human settlements. Understanding its ecology could help planning management decisions about this species, especially in anthropogenic landscapes. Yet, there are no density estimations for this species throughout its distribution range in Bolivia. We estimated the density of D. marsupialis in a rural agricultural community, where agroforestry plantations and fallows cover most of the land. We counted individuals in line transects and used DISTANCE software to calculate density. We covered a total of 70.21 km in 143 night counts, obtaining 38 records of D. marsupialis. We estimated a density of 0.30 individuals ha-1 (SE = 0.062; range: 0.20 - 0.45 individuals ha-1), with a mean encounter rate of 0.54 individuals km-1. Encounter rate varied between habitats, with mean values of 0.20 in secondary forests and 0.64 in agroforestry plantations. Our density estimate is near the lower range of previously reported values for the common opossum in other countries. We argue that our results may reflect the response to the availability of food resources and predation pressure in agroforestry plantations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T15:29:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6f793c04f7af44ce8e74cbab2cb80c70 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0044-5967 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T15:29:09Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Amazonica |
| spelling | doaj.art-6f793c04f7af44ce8e74cbab2cb80c702022-12-22T04:16:11ZengInstituto Nacional de Pesquisas da AmazôniaActa Amazonica0044-59672020-09-0150324625110.1590/1809-4392201903532Common opossum population density in an agroforestry system in BoliviaCamila BENAVIDEShttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-2893-0221Alejandro ARCELuis F. PACHECOABSTRACT The common opossum, Didelphis marsupialis thrives near human settlements. Understanding its ecology could help planning management decisions about this species, especially in anthropogenic landscapes. Yet, there are no density estimations for this species throughout its distribution range in Bolivia. We estimated the density of D. marsupialis in a rural agricultural community, where agroforestry plantations and fallows cover most of the land. We counted individuals in line transects and used DISTANCE software to calculate density. We covered a total of 70.21 km in 143 night counts, obtaining 38 records of D. marsupialis. We estimated a density of 0.30 individuals ha-1 (SE = 0.062; range: 0.20 - 0.45 individuals ha-1), with a mean encounter rate of 0.54 individuals km-1. Encounter rate varied between habitats, with mean values of 0.20 in secondary forests and 0.64 in agroforestry plantations. Our density estimate is near the lower range of previously reported values for the common opossum in other countries. We argue that our results may reflect the response to the availability of food resources and predation pressure in agroforestry plantations.http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0044-59672020000300246&tlng=enDidelphis marsupialistropical agroecosystemsline transectDISTANCE sampling |
| spellingShingle | Camila BENAVIDES Alejandro ARCE Luis F. PACHECO Common opossum population density in an agroforestry system in Bolivia Acta Amazonica Didelphis marsupialis tropical agroecosystems line transect DISTANCE sampling |
| title | Common opossum population density in an agroforestry system in Bolivia |
| title_full | Common opossum population density in an agroforestry system in Bolivia |
| title_fullStr | Common opossum population density in an agroforestry system in Bolivia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Common opossum population density in an agroforestry system in Bolivia |
| title_short | Common opossum population density in an agroforestry system in Bolivia |
| title_sort | common opossum population density in an agroforestry system in bolivia |
| topic | Didelphis marsupialis tropical agroecosystems line transect DISTANCE sampling |
| url | http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0044-59672020000300246&tlng=en |
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