An insight into the ecology of the invasive house mouse on small Mediterranean islands

• Published in: Biological invasions 2024-06, Vol.26 (6), p.1735-1747
• Main Authors: Gasperini, Stefania, Bartolommei, Paola, Bonacchi, Andrea, Dell’Agnello, Filippo, Manzo, Emiliano, Spano, Giovanna, Cozzolino, Roberto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Capture-recapture studies; Demographics; Demography; Developmental Biology; Ecology; Environmental quality; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Habitats; Home range; Houses; Islands; Life Sciences; Marine protected areas; Mice; Mus musculus; Original Paper; Plant Sciences; Population density; Protected areas; Small mammals; Vegetation cover
• ISSN: 1387-3547; 1573-1464
• DOI: 10.1007/s10530-024-03276-8

The invasive house mouse Mus musculus represents a great threat to islands. Eradicating house mouse populations is thus often necessary, entailing actions that could be optimised on the basis of the species’ demography and spatial behaviour. Currently, information on these aspects is scarce on small Mediterranean islands, where house mouse management programs are rising. Using spatially explicit capture–recapture analysis, we estimated the population density, capture probability and home range size of house mice on three small islands in the Tavolara Punta Coda Cavallo Marine Protected Area (Sardinia, Italy). Capture sessions were carried out for 6 consecutive days in spring–summer 2022, totalling 984 trap days. Out of 705 total captures, we trapped 258 individuals on Isola Piana, 39 on Spalmatore di Terra and 100 on Isolotto Rosso. With mean values of approximately 160 and 130 individuals per hectare, respectively, the densities on Isola Piana and Isolotto Rosso were an order of magnitude higher than those on Spalmatore di Terra (approximately 9 ind./ha), suggesting that the latter represents a lower quality habitat. The capture probability was the lowest on Isola Piana while the estimated home range size was far smaller on Isolotto Rosso than on the other islands. The patterns we found suggest that habitat quality together with local factors, such as vegetation cover, may have determined differences in mouse population density, site-specific detectability and spatial behaviour. Our study is thus an important step towards a deeper knowledge of house mouse populations on small Mediterranean islands and it can contribute to an optimization of mice eradication, not only in such environments, but also in different biogeographical contexts.