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This research was funded by ANID/FONDECYT Initiation No. 11180631 from The National Commission for Science and Technology of Chile (CONICYT) FONDECYT. AVR was supported by ANID + PAI Convocatoria Nacional de Subvencion a la Instalacion en la Academia 2018 No. PAI77180009.

Analysis of institutional authors

Hernandez Gonzalez, Maria Del CarmenAuthorBarja, IAuthor

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Article

Behavioral Responses of Wild Rodents to Owl Calls in an Austral Temperate Forest

Publicated to:Animals. 11 (2): 428-16 - 2021-02-01 11(2), DOI: 10.3390/ani11020428

Authors: Hernandez, Ma Carmen; Jara-Stapfer, Denise M; Munoz, Ana; Bonacic, Cristian; Barja, Isabel; Rubio, Andre V

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Abstract

Simple Summary Growing human populations are challenging scientists to find effective ways to control and mitigate human-wildlife conflict while preserving biodiversity. It has been reported that predator odor and calls can drive away rodents, but little is known about species-specific responses of prey. For these reasons, we compared the behavioral changes of common rodent species inhabiting the Chilean temperate forest (Abrothrix spp., the long-tailed pygmy rice rat Oligoryzomys longicaudatus and the black rat Rattus rattus) when exposed to two different native predator calls (the austral pygmy owl Glaucidium nana and the rufous-legged owl Strix rufipes) and a control (no predator calls). Our results showed that all rodent species modified their behavior in the presence of predator calls, but the effects were species dependent. These findings point to the need to carefully study target rodent species instead of applying a general control plan for all rodent species. Ecologically based rodent management strategies are arising as a sustainable approach to rodent control, allowing us to preserve biodiversity while safeguarding human economic activities. Despite predator signals being known to generally repel rodents, few field-based studies have compared the behavioral effects of several predators on different prey species, especially in Neotropical ecosystems. Here, we used camera traps to study the behavior of rodent species native to the Chilean temperate forest (Abrothrix spp., long-tailed pygmy rice rat Oligoryzomys longicaudatus) and an introduced rodent (black rat Rattus rattus). Using playbacks of raptor calls, we experimentally exposed rodents to three predation risk treatments: austral pygmy owl calls (Glaucidium nana), rufous-legged owl calls (Strix rufipes) and a control treatment (absence of owl calls). We evaluated the effects of the treatments on the time allocated to three behaviors: feeding time, locomotor activity and vigilance. Moonlight and vegetation cover were also considered in the analyses, as they can modify perceived predation risk. Results showed that predator calls and environmental factors modified prey behavior depending not only on the predator species, but also on the rodent species. Consequently, owl playbacks could be regarded as a promising rodent control tool, knowing that future studies would be critical to deeply understand differences between species in order to select the most effective predator cues.

Keywords

landscape of fearpredation riskpredator–prey interactionsLandscape of fearPredation riskPredator&#8211Predator–prey interactionsPrey interactionsSmall mammals

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Animals due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2021, it was in position 16/145, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Veterinary Sciences.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations from Scopus Elsevier, it yields a value for the Field-Weighted Citation Impact from the Scopus agency: 1.18, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 2.34 (source consulted: Dimensions Jun 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-02, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 5
  • Scopus: 6
  • Europe PMC: 2
  • OpenCitations: 6

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-02:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 42.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 41 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 0.5.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: http://hdl.handle.net/10486/701088

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Chile.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (HERNANDEZ GONZALEZ, MARIA DEL CARMEN) .