Environmental heterogeneity and habitat use of the red viscacha rat in drylands of west‐central Argentina

TARQUINO?CARBONELL, ANDREA P.; OJEDA, RICARDO A.; SOBRERO, RAÚL; OJEDA, AGUSTINA A.

JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

WILDLIFE SOC

Año: 2024

0022-541X

Environmental heterogeneity shapes the traits of naturalpopulations, including space use and burrowing behavior. Westudied the red viscacha rat (Tympanoctomys barrerae), asemifossorial rodent with patchy distribution in drylands ofwest‐central Argentina, to provide ecological data on habitatand burrow features of this specialist species. We collecteddata on 165 burrows and 55 individuals from 2017–2018 andobserved correlations between different vegetation types,vegetation diversity, and physical attributes (e.g., soil hardness).A high number of individual red viscacha rats wasnegatively associated with herbs. The number of burrowentrances was positively associated with harder soils andnegatively associated with vegetation cover. Our resultssuggest that the species´ patchy distribution is stronglyassociated with environmental heterogeneity of these aridenvironments, and consequently provide an essential steptowards conserving their populations across their geographicrange.