2020 Volume 8 Pages 47-57
In Japan, the Pallas's squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus) is an invasive species with adverse effects on native ecosystems and urban human activities, and is becoming a serious concern. However, there remains a lack of knowledge about the basic ecological habits of Pallas's squirrels in urban areas. We conducted stable isotope analysis and GPS logger deployment to understand the diet and habitat use of Pallas's squirrels in Yokohama City, during summer. We found that the squirrels mainly foraged on plants from the small forests in the urban area, and most of their activities were carried out in the forest areas during summer. This suggested that the main habitat of the urban living squirrels are small forests in urban area. In addition, not very often, but some substantial movement of squirrels in human residential areas outside of the forest were observed in this study. Such behavior could be a potential factor for rapid dispersal of these invasive squirrels in urban areas.
