Abstract
Invasive species–species that have successfully overcome the barriers of transport, introduction, establishment, and spread—are a risk to biodiversity and ecosystem function. Introduction effort is one of the main factors underlying invasion success, but life history traits are also important as they influence population growth. In this contribution, we first investigated life history traits of the Barbary ground squirrel, Atlantoxerus getulus, a species with a very low introduction effort. We then studied if their invasion success was due to a very fast life history profile by comparing their life history traits to those of other successful invasive mammals. Next, we examined whether the number of founders and/or a fast life history influences the invasion success of squirrels. Barbary ground squirrels were on the fast end of the “fast-slow continuum”, but their life history was not the only contributing factor to their invasion success, as the life history profile is comparable to other invasive species that do not have such a low introduction effort. We also found that neither life history traits nor the number of founders explained the invasion success of introduced squirrels in general. These results contradict the concept that introduction effort is the main factor explaining invasion success, especially in squirrels. Instead, we argue that invasion success can be influenced by multiple aspects of the new habitat or the biology of the introduced species.
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Availability of data and material
The datasets analysed during the current study are available in the Github repository, https://github.com/annemarievdmarel/lifehistory_invasion (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4136880).
Code availability
The code used during the current study are available in the Github repository, https://github.com/annemarievdmarel/lifehistory_invasion (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4136880).
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Acknowledgements
We thank the owners of our study sites for access to their lands, the Cabildo of Fuerteventura for access at the Estación Biológica de la Oliva, and the IPNA-CSIC for logistical support. We thank E. Anjos for providing useful feedback.
Funding
This study was funded by a University of Manitoba Faculty of Science graduate studentship and a Faculty of Graduate Studies Graduate Enhancement of the Tri-Council Stipend (GETS) to AM, by Cabildo de Tenerife, Program TF INNOVA 2016–21 (with MEDI & FDCAN Funds) (P. INNOVA 2016–2021) to MLD, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (#04362), the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the University of Manitoba University Research Grant Program to JMW.
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AM, JMW and MLD conceived and designed the study and collected the data. AM analyzed the data and first drafted the manuscript; the contributions of AM, JMW and MLD made up the final manuscript.
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All procedures conformed to the guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the use of wild mammals in research, were approved by the University of Manitoba Animal Care and Use Committee (protocol #F14-032) and were permitted by the government of Fuerteventura (Cabildo Insular de Fuerteventura #14885).
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van der Marel, A., Waterman, J.M. & López-Darias, M. Exploring the role of life history traits and introduction effort in understanding invasion success in mammals: a case study of Barbary ground squirrels. Oecologia 195, 327–339 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04853-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-021-04853-7