Diet quality differentially affects breeding effort of Mastomys coucha and M. natalensis: Implications for rodent pests.

In this study we compare the reproductive ability of Mastomys natalensis, an agricultural rodent pest and that of the closely related species M. coucha, which has not been ascribed as a pest. We suggest that the ability of M. natalensis to plague, as well as dominate, resource-limited habitats, may in part be related to its differential breeding response to variation in diet quality. Thus, we examined the reproductive response of M. coucha and M. natalensis mothers to variation in dietary protein intake. Our results demonstrated that typical levels of reproduction extended over a narrower range of dietary protein content for M. coucha than M. natalensis females. Only M. natalensis females bred on 6% protein diets, while on 20% protein diets the reproductive output of M. coucha was lower than on diets containing 10- and 15% protein. M. natalensis responded to low protein diets by reducing litter size and litter mass but not individual pup mass. Thus, providing diet quality improves before parturition, conception under sub-optimal conditions may not compromise individual pup growth. Furthermore, the ability of M. natalensis to breed under conditions of low diet quality may advance their breeding season compared to species that cannot breed until diet quality improves, allowing M. natalensis to produce additional litters through the season, while more daughters could reproduce during the season of their birth, both factors that are known to contribute to the plaguing tendency of M. natalensis.