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Ecosystem engineers modify their environment and influence the availability of resources for other organisms. Burrowing species, a subset of allogenic engineers, are gaining recognition as ecological facilitators. Burrows created by these species provide habitat for a diverse array of other organisms. Following disturbances, burrows could also serv...
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... (family Vombatidae) are the largest burrowing marsupials on earth ( Evans et al. 2006). There are 3 extant wombat species, all of which occur in Australia. The Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus; Fig. 1), also known as a Bare-nosed Wombat, has the largest distribution of the 3 species (Taylor 1993;Evans 2008;Baker and Gynther 2023), which coincides with several of the 2019-20 bushfires (Fig. 2). Despite being listed as Least Concern by the IUCN (2008), the species has undergone substantial decline across its range since European ...
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... Mobbing behaviour is conspicuous, and, by attracting more individuals, it may further facilitate their visitation of cavities for other purposes. burrows (Andersen, Bennett, and Holbrook 2021;Tye et al. 2021;Kinlaw 1999;Mukherjee et al. 2019;Linley et al. 2024), beaver lodges (Windels 2017), etc. While few species use such structures for reproduction, they can attract tens of species that make short visits and utilise such structures for resting, comfort behaviour, obtaining resources, and social interactions. ...
Tree cavities offer protected shelters and resources for arboreal vertebrates worldwide. In general, cavities with larger openings are better accessible for predators and are avoided by smaller species for breeding, but can still be attractive for occasional use. The current study explores the diversity of functional use types and species interactions at the largest available tree cavities (entrance width ≥ 10 cm) in a temperate European forest with a low number of large cavity‐breeding species. Year‐round camera observations at 9 cavities (range 0.7–3.5 years) revealed 34 visiting species of birds and mammals, including non‐cavity‐breeding species. The top predator threatening other large‐cavity users was European pine marten (Martes martes), which regularly visited each cavity year‐round, on average every 0.7 months. Tawny owl (Strix aluco) was the only species successfully breeding in cavities, arguably because of its ability to defend the nests. However, other species visited cavities at an average rate of 1.5 visits per day, making predominantly short visits (less than 30 s) interpreted as exploration, searching for food, or inspecting for the presence of owls (mobbing). Making short visits and time segregation with predators was a behavioural strategy to exploit cavities for most species. These results confirm that, similarly to other keystone structures (large arboreal nests, ground burrows, etc.), large tree cavities attract a significant part of the arboreal vertebrate community and enrich their habitats. To sustain these functions in wooded ecosystems, management should provide a surplus of available cavities and diversity of their characteristics even when the apparent number of breeding species is low.
... This suggests that the (armadillo) burrows in the Pantanal region can also act as protection for some small vertebrates during wildfires, which are predicted to be more frequent each year (Libonati et al. 2022). A similar phenomenon also occurs with wombats in Australia (Linley et al. 2024;Old et al. 2018), where 48 vertebrate species were record using wombat burrows as shelter during gigafires (Linley et al. 2024). Therefore, as observed for the giant armadillo, the role played by smaller armadillo species in maintaining biodiversity and ecological dynamics in the Pantanal is evident. ...
... This suggests that the (armadillo) burrows in the Pantanal region can also act as protection for some small vertebrates during wildfires, which are predicted to be more frequent each year (Libonati et al. 2022). A similar phenomenon also occurs with wombats in Australia (Linley et al. 2024;Old et al. 2018), where 48 vertebrate species were record using wombat burrows as shelter during gigafires (Linley et al. 2024). Therefore, as observed for the giant armadillo, the role played by smaller armadillo species in maintaining biodiversity and ecological dynamics in the Pantanal is evident. ...
Dasypus novemcinctus and Euphractus sexcinctus are common armadillo species in the Brazilian Pantanal. Due to their
digging habits, they alter the surroundings providing environmental alternatives that can be used by other organisms. We
therefore aimed to identify the animal species that utilize the burrows of these armadillos in the Pantanal Wetland and
to investigate how they use them. This study was carried out by camera trapping, targeting 27 armadillo burrows in the
Pantanal. We obtained a total of 594 records of 34 species of mammals, birds, and reptiles. The way wildlife utilized
the burrows was categorized into pass, approach, entrance, and interior. Records showed that Carnivora was the richest
order recorded, mainly Nasua nasua, Cerdocyon thous, and Leopardus pardalis. We found that Thrichomys fosteri and
Clyomys laticeps were the only species using the burrows as shelter or refuges. Our data show that D. novemcinctus and
E. sexcinctus burrows play an important ecological role in the Pantanal wetland, acting as meeting points for several species
of local fauna.
The burrow microhabitats created by burrowing mammals, as a hotspot for biodiversity distribution in ecosystems, provide multiple critical resources for many other sympatric species. However, the cascading effects of burrow resources on sympatric animal community assemblages and interspecific interactions are largely unknown. During 2020–2023, we monitored 184 Chinese pangolin ( Manis pentadactyla ) burrows using camera traps to reveal the burrow utilization patterns of commensal species. We totally recorded up to 57 species, with 19 mammal species, 32 bird species, and 1 reptile species recorded in the burrows revisited by Chinese pangolin, with 19 mammal species and 25 bird species in the non‐revisited burrows. Among them, most bird species as peripheral species primarily utilize soil mounds while most mammal species as burrow‐used species utilize burrow tunnels. The structure of animal communities in the burrows revisited by Chinese pangolins is more complex than that in the burrows not revisited. Furthermore, the positive correlation between community species in pangolin‐revisited burrows is also stronger. Our results demonstrate that the presence and repeated visitation by Chinese pangolins could enhance positive interactions (i.e., the emergence of one species promotes the emergence of another) among species that utilize the burrow resources (particularly, burrow‐used species). Our study provides the first evidence that the ecological role of the Chinese pangolin and its associated burrow microhabitats in promoting the coexistence of burrowing commensals and the restoration of Chinese pangolin populations may potentially contribute to the restoration of local biodiversity and ecological processes.
Climate change is altering fire regimes globally, leading to an increased incidence of large and severe wildfires, including gigafires (>100,000 ha), that homogenise landscapes. Despite this, our understanding of how large, severe wildfires affect biodiversity at the landscape scale remains limited.
We investigated the impact of a gigafire that occurred during the unprecedented 2019–20 Australian ‘Black Summer’ on terrestrial fauna. We selected 24 study landscapes, each 0.785 km² in size, that represented a gradient in the extent of high severity fire, unburnt vegetation, and the diversity of fire severity classes (‘pyrodiversity’). We used wildlife cameras to survey biodiversity across each landscape and quantified species activity, community and functional diversity, and predator–prey network metrics. We used Bayesian mixed‐effects models to assess the influence of fire‐induced landscape properties on these measures.
Most native species showed resilience to the 2019–20 wildfires, displaying few relationships with fire‐induced properties of landscapes, including the extent of high severity fire, unburnt vegetation, or pyrodiversity.
Community and functional diversity and measures of predator–prey networks were also largely unaffected by fire‐induced landscape properties, although landscapes with a greater proportion of high severity fire had higher abundance and richness of introduced animal species.
Synthesis and applications: Despite prevailing narratives of widespread ecological destruction following the 2019–20 wildfires, our findings suggest widespread resilience, potentially facilitated by evolutionary adaptations of animals to fire. Interventions aimed at helping such species recover may not be necessary and could instead focus on the subset of species that are vulnerable to severe fire. While mixed‐severity fires are often advocated to promote biodiversity through pyrodiversity, our results suggest that such management efforts might not be necessary in our study region. Given that severe fire favours introduced animal species, invasive species management could focus on large, severely burnt areas.
