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Love getaway: dispersal pattern and distance of the crested porcupine

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Abstract

The crested porcupine Hystrix cristata is undergoing a marked range expansion in Italy, and it is reaching the northern regions, where it was historically absent. We studied its dispersal ability by marking 86 subadult individuals through coloured tapes on dorsal quills, in contrasting environmental context (i.e. coastal scrubland, deciduous woodland, suburbs, rural areas and farmlands), in Southern Tuscany. Recaptures occurred only for 14 (16.3%) of them, allowing us to evaluate dispersal patterns, which ranged from 180 to 4896 m. We showed that no sexual difference occurred in dispersal distances, as expected by the monogamous mating system of this rodent. The season did not affect dispersal patterns significantly, although most of these movements occurred at the peak of the main reproductive season. Dispersal distance increased with increasing home range and with increasing woodland cover (i.e. % of study site covered by woodland). Forest reexpansion in Italy may thus have promoted the range expansion by this species during the last 40 years.

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Acknowledgements

We are deeply indebted with Professor Sandro Lovari, who provided us with useful recommendations and funds. We also acknowledge A. Massolo, M. Mattii, F. Meschi and G. Romeo, as well as all other students/collaborators for data collection. Luc Wauters provided us with useful comments on an early draft. Two anonymous reviewers greatly improved our first draft with their comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Unit of Behavioural Ecology, Ethology and Wildlife Management, Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena, Via P.A. Mattioli 4, 53100, Siena, Italy

    Emiliano Mori & Niccolò Fattorini

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  1. Emiliano Mori
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  2. Niccolò Fattorini
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Contributions

E. M. conceived the idea, did part of the field work, organized the dataset and wrote part of the paper; N. F. carried out the statistical analyses and participated in writing up all drafts. Both authors participated in the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Emiliano Mori.

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Communicated by: Krzysztof Schmidt

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Mori, E., Fattorini, N. Love getaway: dispersal pattern and distance of the crested porcupine. Mamm Res 64, 529–534 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-019-00438-1

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