Diet and food selection by small mammals in an old-growth Atlantic forest of south-eastern Brazil

Abstract

Here we describe the stomach contents of nine small mammal species (seven rodents and two didelphid marsupials) co-occurring in an old-growth Atlantic forest area. For four terrestrial rodents, we also compared the importance of arthropods in the diet and the selection of arthropod groups by comparing consumption with availability. Small mammals and arthropods were sampled in a 36-ha grid containing 25 sampling stations spaced every 150 m, and 47 stomach contents were analysed. While plant matter was the predominant item in the stomach contents of two rodents (Oligoryzomys nigripes and Rhipidomys mastacalis), four species presented arthropods as the main food item (the rodents Brucepattersonius soricinus and Oxymycterus dasytrichus, and the marsupials Monodelphis n. sp. and Marmosops incanus) and three consumed more plant matter than arthropods, but had significant amounts of both items (the rodents Delomys sublineatus, Euryoryzomys russatus and Thaptomys nigrita). Our results suggest that differences in diet, coupled with differences in habit and microhabitat preferences, are important factors allowing resource partition among species of the diverse group of co-occurring terrestrial small mammals in Atlantic forest areas. Moreover, arthropods were not preyed opportunistically by any of the four terrestrial rodents, since consumption was not proportional to availability. Rather, selection or rejection of arthropod groups seems to be determined by aspects other than availability, such as nutritional value, easiness of capture and handling or palatability.

Keywords:

• Brazil
• Didelphimorphia
• food availability
• food selection
• Rodentia
• tropical forest

Acknowledgements

We thank A. Albuquerque, J.M.B. Ghellere, S.A. Vanin, R. Pinto-da-Rocha, F.P.L. Marques and other colleagues for invaluable help during field and laboratory work; SABESP, for the lodging during field work and permission to work in the Morro Grande Forest Reserve; and FAPESP – Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (04/14615-8, 04/04959-1, and 99/05123-4), CNPq – Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico and BMBF – German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (01 LB 0202) for grants.