Foraging and denning patterns of brushtail possums, and their possible relationship to contact with cattle and the transmission of bovine tuberculosis

Abstract

Radio-tracking and direct observation were used over 18 months in 1990–92 to investigate both the use of sleeping dens and foraging activity by possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) on a 21 ha site in the Wairarapa used for a longitudinal study of bovine tuberculosis. Males had larger home ranges than females, and both sexes had larger activity areas during the autumn mating season than at other times of the year. Possums typically foraged in only a small area of their home ranges (termed an activity area) on any one night, and the areas used by individuals were commonly very similar over a series of nights. Activity areas overlapped extensively among possums. Possums used a limited number of dens, commonly in a small and in most cases a circumscribed part of their home range. No simultaneous densharing was found, with the exception of mother-joey pairs. The mortality of juveniles after independence was 36%. Only two of 25 juveniles under surveillance to detect dispersal dispersed more than 500 m off the study site, and both subsequently died. Grazing patterns of cattle meant that almost all accessible areas of the paddock were covered by at least some grazing cattle, and so all activity areas of possums within the paddock were covered by areas where cattle foraged. However, possums avoided contact with cattle, and when some cattle were excluded from access to the part of the paddock principally used by both tuberculous and healthy possums for denning, transmission of Mycobacterium bovis from possums to these cattle ceased, although there was subsequent transmission to deer. Cattle which grazed the area used principally for possum denning continued to become infected, and these denning areas appeared to be of importance in the transmission of tuberculosis.