Diet overlap and spatial segregation between two neotropical marsupials revealed by multiple analytical approaches.

ABSTRACT: Species co-existence depends on how organisms utilize their environment and resources. When two sympatric species are similar in some ecological requirements, their coexistence may arise from differences in resource use over time and/or space. Interactions among coexisting marsupials remain poorly understood, especially in the Neotropics. Here we combine spatial niche measurements, individual-resource networks, and isotopic niche approaches, to investigate the ecological strategies used by the Neotropical marsupials Didelphis aurita and Metachirus nudicaudatus to co-occur in an area of Serra do Mar State Park (southeast of Brazil). Both individual-resource networks and isotopic niche approaches indicate similar patterns of omnivory for both species. Isotopic analysis showed the species' tr

SUBMITTER: Kuhnen VV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5507539 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature