Movements and Home Ranges of Polynesian Rats in Hawaiian Sugarcane

Abstract

Fifty-seven Polynesian rats (Rattus exulans), equipped with transmitters, were monitored in sugarcane fields and neighboring wastelands at various seasons so that a better understanding of crop damage by rats might be obtained. Linear movements for males were longer than for females, longer in winter than in summer, and longer in young sugarcane than in mature sugarcane. Rats with burrows in wastelands moved greater distances than did rats with burrows in sugarcane fields. Estimated home range size (mean, 1845 square meters for males and 607 square meters for females) tended to increase with more observations, and most elliptical home ranges in wastelands were oriented toward the fields. Rats with wasteland burrows were found in fields during 57 percent of the observations, but field residents were found in the wastelands during only 1 percent of the observations.