habitat_narrative

Terrestrial

This species is known from grassland and marshes in fynbos and thicket habitats. It generally occurs in areas of dense vegetation cover and higher moisture content. It also occurs in pine plantations. Vlei rats are exclusively herbivorous, with a diet mainly comprised of grasses (Monadjem et al. 2015). They are generally K-selected, giving birth usually to one or two offspring (maximum five) which are precocial and born with erupted incisors enabling them to nipple-cling to their mother immediately after birth (Monadjem et al. 2015).

Vlei rats are important food for a number of mammalian predators as well as raptors such as marsh owls and barn owls (Skinner and Chimimba 2005, Monadjem et al. 2015). For example, Vlei rats are favoured food by the Serval (Bowland 1990), so their range expansion could be interrelated (Power 2014). Otomys skulls typically comprise the bulk of owl pellets.

Wetlands are the most threatened ecosystem in South Africa (Driver et al. 2012). The South African National Land-Cover change report found a 32.8% decline in natural wetlands nationally from 1990– 2013/14, which is a combination of both genuine wetland loss through anthropogenic activities and the generally drier conditions currently that in 1990 (GeoTerraImage 2015). In the Western Cape, specifically, 31% of all wetlands (plus a 32m buffer) and riparian areas have been transformed/lost to agricultural land use (Pence 2012).