Praomys delectorum capture-mark-recapture dataset from fieldwork on the Ukaguru Mountains, Tanzania.

Praomys delectorum occurs abundantly in both disturbed and intact forests
in the Ukaguru Mountains within the Eastern Arc Mountains (EAM), Morogoro,
Tanzania. While previous studies have reported that anthropogenic
disturbance such as grazing, wood cutting and harvesting has a positive
effect on the population density of P. delectorum, the impact of habitat
disturbance on its demographic traits is still unknown. We performed a
capture-mark-recapture study in both disturbed and intact forest from June
2018 to February 2020 in order to investigate the effects of habitat
disturbance on abundance as well as two demographic traits: survival and
maturation of P. delectorum in the Ukaguru Mountains. We found no
variation in abundance or maturation between intact and disturbed forests,
but habitat type did affect survival. However, this effect was
sex-dependent since female survival was higher in disturbed forests while
male survival remained similar across the two forest types potentially due
to differences in predation pressure or food availability between the two
habitats. Continuous demographic monitoring of P. delectorum in EAM is
necessary given that the increasing human population surrounding the
landscape is leading to higher deforestation rates, and expansion of the
pine plantation in the forest reserve.