The effect of competitor presence on the foraging decisions of small mammals

Competitive interactions between species can have marked effects on the diets and foraging behaviours of the interactants. Dominant competitors may constrain the foraging decisions of subordinate competitors, reducing the individual fitness of subordinates, and potentially driving their populations to low levels. Following a sustained population decline of the bush rat (Rattus fuscipes) in the presence of the competitively dominant common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) at Booderee National Park in south-eastern Australia, we investigated whether possums affected the foraging decisions of bush rats. Using a modified giving-up density experiment, we predicted that bush rats would: (a) increase visits to baited sites where possums had restricted access, and (b) restrict visits to baited sites where possums had free access. We used camera traps to investigate visitation patterns and foraging bout lengths at 40 baited sites with two treatments, one that allowed full access by both ..., Ethics Statement
This study was conducted in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes. The protocol was approved by the Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee at the Australian National University (Protocol Number: A2021_52).
Study Location
Our experiment was conducted in March and April 2022 in Booderee National Park (BNP), a 6,000 ha protected area on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia (Fig 1). The Park is owned by the Wreck Bay Indigenous Community and is jointly managed by them and Parks Australia. The Park has a temperate climate, with an average annual rainfall of 1,213 mm (Bureau of Meteorology 2022). However, due to the La Niña weather system occurring at the time of data collection, the Park experienced higher-than-average rainfall, including partial flooding, which occurred in the weeks before the experiment. The temperatures at the time of the experiment ranged from 13.5° to 26.6°C (B..., , # The effect of competitor presence on the foraging decisions of small mammals

## Description of the data and file structure

### First Dataset: PhotoBehaviours2.csv

The data collected from camera trap images included the site visited, night visited, length of visit, species visiting, and description of behaviour observed during the visit.

The information is organised by site, with each line representing a visit event.

* The column named 'bin type' informs the access condition of the site.
* The column named 'night' informs which night of the experiment the visit occurred on.
* The columns named 'Start Date' and 'End Date' inform the dates on which the visit occurred.
* The columns named 'Start Photo' and 'End Photo' inform the first and last photo over which a visit took place, with the column named 'No. of Photos' describing the number of photos over which a visit took place.
* The column named 'Start Time' informs the time a visit started and the column 'End Time' informs the tim...