Citation: West K, Collins C, Kardailsky O, Kahn J, Hunt TL, Burley DV and Matisoo-Smith E (2017) The Pacific Rat Race to Easter Island: Tracking the Prehistoric Dispersal of Rattus exulans Using Ancient Mitochondrial Genomes. Front. Ecol. Evol. 5:52. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2017.00052 The Pacific Rat Race to Easter Island: Tracking the Prehistoric Dispersal of Rattus exulans Using Ancient Mitochondri...

Four bats and three rodents species were reported from Farasan Island. Triaenops persicus Dobson, 1871 is for the first time Saudi Arabia based on echolocation calls. The presence of Pipistrellus kuhlii (Kuhl, 1817), Asellia patrizii De Beaux, 1931, Rattus rattus (Linnaeus, 1758), Gerbillus nanus Blanford, 1875 are confirmed.

Knowledge of potential reservoirs of Leishmania spp. in an anthropic environment is important so that surveillance and control measures can be implemented. The aim of this study was to investigate the infection by Leishmania in small mammals in an area located in Minas Gerais, Brazil, that undergoes changes in its natural environment and presents autochthonous human cases of cutaneous leishmani...

Abstract Distribution pattern and relative abundance of the agricultural rodent pests rain-fed irrigated areas district Swat Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan were recorded from April 2011 to November 2013 using wire mesh live traps. A total 350 rodents (269 Rattus rattus 81 Mus musculus) captured under 2268 trap nights (trap success: 0.15). Regression daily captures on cumulative revealed an estima...

Forest edges can strongly affect avian nest success by altering nest predation rates, but this relationship is inconsistent and context dependent. There is a need for researchers to improve the predictability of edge effects on nest predation rates by examining the mechanisms driving their occurrence and variability. In this study, we examined how the capture rates of ship rats, an invasive nes...

Exotic predators are a major threat to native wildlife in many parts of the world. Developing and implementing effective strategies to mitigate their effects requires robust quantitative data so that management can be evidence-based, yet in many ecosystems this is missing. Birds in particular have been severely impacted by exotic mammalian predators, and a plethora of studies on islands record ...

Calodium hepaticum (syn. Capillaria hepatica) is a trichurid nematode that parasitizes the hepatic parenchyma of rodents and other mammals. Infections in humans are rare, although they have been reported worldwide. A number of factors contribute to the distribution of this zoonosis, particularly the presence of dense populations of rodents associated with relatively poor urban environments, suc...

Moving an animal from the environmental context in which it has learned a particular task to an entirely different context can reduce performance. We investigated the effect of switching environmental contexts on the ability of adult laboratory rats, Rattus norvegicus, to recognize and habituate to repeated presentations of juvenile conspecifics. Adults were exposed to juveniles for four period...

Rapid morphological change has been shown in rodent populations on islands, including endemic deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus subspp.) on the California Channel Islands. Surprisingly, most of these changes were towards a smaller size. Black rats were introduced to Anacapa Island in the mid-1800s (probably in 1853) and eradicated in 2001-2002. To assess possible changes in these rats since the...

Abstract Three species of Rattus, Norway rat (R. norvergicus), black rattus) and Asian house tanezumi) are currently known to occur in South Africa. The latter two cryptic form part the Rattus rattus complex. Historically, R. norvegicus has been reported along coast urban centres, is widespread most areas, except drier while tanezumi was only recorded country (and Africa) ca. 15 years ago, its ...