Occupancy of the black rat Rattus rattus in Madagascar
2025
Guay, Mélodie
Black rats (Rattus rattus) are invasive generalists known for quickly adapting to new environments and being a threat to human health, agriculture and biodiversity. In Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot, black rats are found everywhere across the country from homes to remote forests. They act as a reservoir for the plague, which is endemic to the country, and play a role in crop destruction which negatively impacts the economy. Therefore, understanding which environments black rats occupy and habitat characteristics of those areas could facilitate management decisions to minimize the species negative impacts. Using camera-trap data from five sites in the eastern humid forest ecozone, I modelled the terrestrial and arboreal occupancy of black rats across various habitat types and distances to human settlements. As distance to human settlements increased, occupancy decreased, highlighting the importance of black rats’ commensal relationship with humans. Terrestrial occupancy was highest in cleared habitats, at sites where these were sampled, suggesting that reforestation could have early benefits to reducing black rat occupancy. However, arboreal occupancy was higher in reforested habitats than native forest in most sites, possibly due to ease of movement in younger, less structurally complex trees. This study highlights the importance of understanding how black rats use their environment to develop more effective population control strategies and to inform conservation programs by considering their impact on native flora and fauna.
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