Resources at the landscape scale influence possum abundance

Abstract

There is increasing realization that human perceptions of a 'patchy' environment do not necessarily relate to that of a particular organism and ecological characteristics of land adjacent to patches of natural vegetation ('remnants') may influence the ecological processes within. We investigated how the distribution and abundance of resources within and surrounding 39 small remnants located within the city of Melbourne, Australia, influenced the abundance of common brushtail possums Trichosurus vulpecula (Phalangeridae) and common ringtail possums Pseudocheirus peregrinus (Pseudocheiridae), two primarily folivorous marsupials. Bayesian modelling techniques were used to relate the abundance o..