Mammalia 2019; aop Short Note Jesús Alonso Panti-May*, Yessica Margely Gurubel-González, Cesar Tzuc-Dzul, Eduardo Emir Palomo-Arjona, Carmen Salazar, Carlos Baak-Baak, Julian E. García-Rejón, Carlos Machain-Williams and Silvia F. Hernández-Betancourt Diet of two invasive rodent species in two Mayan communities in Mexico https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2018-0083 Received May 8, 2018; accepted January 24, 2019 Abstract: The gastrointestinal content analysis of 344 invasive rodents (120 black rats and 224 house mice) in two Mayan communities revealed that rats consumed a high percentage of plants (93.3%) and arthropods (95.5%). In contrast, arthropods were less frequent (55.8%) than plants (94.6%) in mouse’s diet. In both rodent species, fragments of Sapotaceae and Hymenoptera were com- mon plant and arthropod foods, respectively. Our results suggest that the food availability present in the Mayan communities is similar to the one described in natural habitats. Keywords: gastrointestinal contents; Mayan houses; Mus musculus; Rattus rattus; rural tropical areas. Invasive rodents, particularly the black rat (Rattus rattus Linnaeus, 1758) and the house mouse (Mus musculus Lin- naeus, 1758), are considered two of the most obnoxious pests in the world (Battersby et al. 2008). These rodents are associated with significant economic losses due to the destruction of infrastructure in homes, food industries, and agriculture (Pimentel et al. 2005). In areas such as islands, they cause negative impacts by predation of native communities of plants, birds, invertebrates, reptiles, and small mammals (Harper and Bunbury 2015). Also, black rats and house mice represent a public health risk due to the zoonotic pathogens they harbor and spread, such as viruses (e.g. Seoul hantavirus), bacteria (e.g. Leptospira spp.), and helminths (e.g. Hymenolepis spp.) (Meerburg et al. 2009). The analysis of gastrointestinal contents provides information on food habits of rodents and can, therefore, provide insights into their life-history strategies as well as their economic and ecological impacts (Clark 1982, Naqvi et al. 2013). Additionally, the study of food intake can help us to understand how rodents acquire parasitic infec- tions as some parasites require arthropods as intermedi- ate hosts or vectors on their life cycles. Previous reports in rural communities from the State of Yucatán, Mexico, indicate that black rats and house mice are abundant and harbor zoonotic parasites such as Hymenolepis diminuta, helminth that requires insects as intermediate hosts (Panti-May et al. 2012, 2017a). Moreover, a recent study showed that inhabitants from rural and urban settlements perceived rodents as harmful animals due to the damage they cause to foods (Panti-May et al. 2017b). Although the diet of commensal rodents has been extensively studied on several islands around the world, there is little information from habitats such as human settlements. Studies on islands have reported that the black rat and the house mouse can vary the proportion of plants or arthropods in their diets to obtain an adequate nutrition depending on the availability of foods (Clark 1982, Le Roux et al. 2002, Shiels et al. 2013, Riofrío-Lazo and Páez-Rosas 2015, Ceia et al. 2017). Stomach contents of black rats trapped in urban Pakistani households showed that wheat and garbanzos are preferred by rats, whereas arthropods were rarely consumed under the same con- ditions (Naqvi et al. 2013). Similarly, Sidorov and Putin *Corresponding author: Jesús Alonso Panti-May, Doctorado en Ciencias Agropecuarias, Campus de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, km. 15.5 carretera Mérida-Xmatkuil, CP 97135, Mérida, Mexico, e-mail: panti.alonso@gmail.com. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1669-5727 Yessica Margely Gurubel-González, Eduardo Emir Palomo-Arjona and Silvia F. Hernández-Betancourt: Departamento de Zoología, Campus de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, km. 15.5 carretera Mérida-Xmatkuil, CP 97135, Mérida, Mexico Cesar Tzuc-Dzul, Carlos Baak-Baak, Julian E. García-Rejón and Carlos Machain-Williams: Laboratorio de Arbovirología, Centro de Investigaciones Regionales “Dr. Hideyo Noguchi”, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, calle 96 e/avenida Jacinto Canek y 47, CP 97225, Mérida, Mexico Carmen Salazar: Departamento de Botánica, Campus de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, km. 15.5 carretera Mérida-Xmatkuil, CP 97135, Mérida, Mexico Brought to you by | Lancaster University Authenticated Download Date | 4/15/19 4:44 AM