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A mouse in the spotlight : response capacity to artificial light at night in a rodent pest species, the southern multimammate mouse (Mastomys coucha)

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Title: A mouse in the spotlight : response capacity to artificial light at night in a rodent pest species, the southern multimammate mouse (Mastomys coucha)
Authors: Oosthuizen, Tasha, Pillay, Neville, Oosthuizen, Maria Kathleen
Publisher Information: Elsevier
Publication Year: 2024
Collection: University of Pretoria: UPSpace
Subject Terms: Activity profile, Artificial light at night, Circadian rhythms, Mastomys, Nocturnal rodent, Urbanisation, Southern multimammate mice (Mastomys coucha), SDG-03: Good health and well-being, SDG-15: Life on land, Artificial light at night (ALAN)
Description: DATA AVAILABILITY : The data is uploaded on Figshare and is available with the following link: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.26363452.v1. ; Multimammate mice are prolific breeders, can cause significant agricultural damage, and are reservoir hosts for a number of pathogens. They are nocturnal and given their success in urbanised rural environments, we were interested in how they would respond to increasingly bright anthropogenic spaces. We evaluated the locomotor activity of southern multimammate mice (Mastomys coucha), under four treatments: in an outdoor enclosure with natural light and temperature fluctuations, in a laboratory under a standard light regime, and two artificial light at night (ALAN) regimes (2 Lux) of varying proximity. The study animals remained nocturnal for the duration of the experiments. They were more active under the laboratory conditions with lower day-time light levels compared to the outdoor treatment but reduced their activity under ALAN. When the night light originated remotely, activity levels decreased by more than 50%, whereas under direct ALAN from above the cages, there was a 75% decrease in activity. The onset of activity was later during the two LAN treatments. We concluded that Mastomys coucha is strongly averse to light and show severe behavioural and circadian responses to light at night. We predict that it is unlikely that Mastomys will flourish in cities, but that they could thrive in and around dark urbanised refugia. ; The University of Witwatersrand and the Lee Berger Foundation. ; https://www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman ; am2024 ; Mammal Research Institute ; Zoology and Entomology ; SDG-15:Life on land
Document Type: article in journal/newspaper
File Description: application/pdf; application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Language: English
Relation: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/102000
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123373
Availability: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/102000
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123373
Rights: © 2024 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.
Accession Number: edsbas.ACEB2E9
Database: BASE
Description
Abstract:DATA AVAILABILITY : The data is uploaded on Figshare and is available with the following link: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.26363452.v1. ; Multimammate mice are prolific breeders, can cause significant agricultural damage, and are reservoir hosts for a number of pathogens. They are nocturnal and given their success in urbanised rural environments, we were interested in how they would respond to increasingly bright anthropogenic spaces. We evaluated the locomotor activity of southern multimammate mice (Mastomys coucha), under four treatments: in an outdoor enclosure with natural light and temperature fluctuations, in a laboratory under a standard light regime, and two artificial light at night (ALAN) regimes (2 Lux) of varying proximity. The study animals remained nocturnal for the duration of the experiments. They were more active under the laboratory conditions with lower day-time light levels compared to the outdoor treatment but reduced their activity under ALAN. When the night light originated remotely, activity levels decreased by more than 50%, whereas under direct ALAN from above the cages, there was a 75% decrease in activity. The onset of activity was later during the two LAN treatments. We concluded that Mastomys coucha is strongly averse to light and show severe behavioural and circadian responses to light at night. We predict that it is unlikely that Mastomys will flourish in cities, but that they could thrive in and around dark urbanised refugia. ; The University of Witwatersrand and the Lee Berger Foundation. ; https://www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman ; am2024 ; Mammal Research Institute ; Zoology and Entomology ; SDG-15:Life on land
DOI:10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.123373