Transandinomys Talamancae - Ecology and Behavior

Ecology and Behavior

Transandinomys talamancae is a common, even abundant species. Its ecology was studied by Theodore Fleming in the Panama Canal Zone. It lives on the ground and is active during the night. The animal uses nests that are located above the ground and occasionally enters burrows also used by the pocket mouse Liomys adspersus. Its diet is omnivorous, including both plant material such as seeds and fruits and adult and larval insects.

Males tend to move over longer distances than females. The average home range size in Fleming's study was 1.33 hectares (3.3 acres); males had larger home ranges on average. Specimens that were once captured tended to be captured more frequently than those that had never been captured. Fleming estimated that population densities reached peaks of up to 4.3 per ha (1.7 per acre) late in the rainy season (October–November), but dropped to near zero around June; however, these figures may well be underestimates. In central Venezuela, population densities vary from 5.5 to 9.6 per ha (2.2 to 3.8 per acre).

In Panama, it breeds year-round without apparent seasonal variability. According to Omar Linares's Mamíferos de Venezuela (Mammals of Venezuela), reproductive activity is highest in June–July and December. In the laboratory, the gestation period is 28 days; Linares reports that it is 20 to 30 days in the wild. Females produce an average of six litters per year and there are two to five (average 3.92) young per litter, so that a single female may produce about 24 young per year; this is likely an overestimate because most females would not live for a full year. Larger females may have larger litters. Animals become sexually mature when less than two months old; in Fleming's study, some females in juvenile fur, probably less than 50 days old, were already pregnant. The oldest specimen Fleming observed was nine months old; he estimated that animals were unlikely to live for more than a year in the wild and that the mean age at death was 2.9 months.

Ten species of mites (Gigantolaelaps aitkeni, Gigantolaelaps gilmorei, Gigantolaelaps oudemansi, Gigantolaelaps wolffsohni, Haemolaelaps glasgowi, Laelaps dearmasi, Laelaps pilifer, Laelaps thori, Mysolaelaps parvispinosus, and Paraspeleognathopsis cricetidarum), thirteen chiggers (Aitkenius cunctatus, Ascoschoengastia dyscrita, Eutrombicula alfreddugesi, Eutrombicula goeldii, Intercutestrix tryssa, Leptotrombidium panamensis, Myxacarus oscillatus, Pseudoschoengastia abditiva, Pseudoschoengastia bulbifera, Trombicula dunni, and Trombicula keenani), and four fleas (Jellisonia sp., Polygenis roberti, Polygenis klagesi, and Polygenis dunni) have been found on T. talamancae in Panama. G. aitkeni has also been found on this species in Colombia. In addition, the sucking lice Hoplopleura nesoryzomydis and Hoplopleura oryzomydis occur on T. talamancae.