Parasite species co-occurrence patterns on North American red squirrels ().

Abstract

Parasite species interactions, host biology traits, and external environmental factors can drive co-occurrence patterns between parasite species. We investigated co-occurrence patterns between three ectoparasite species (mite (), and fleas (and)) of North American red squirrels (). We evaluated (1) whether ectoparasites of red squirrels exhibit non-random co-occurrence patterns, and (2) the contribution of host and external environmental factors to parasite co-occurrence. Bayesian ordination and regression analysis (boral) revealed random associations between parasite species pairs when accounting for host and external environmental factors. However, the miteexhibited a negative association with the fleaand positive association with the flealinked to temporal patterns of occurrence. Our data suggests that parasites of the investigated population of red squirrels tend to form associations based on temporal trends in infestation rather than species interactions. Further experimentation should investigate the role of additional factors on parasite co-occurrence patterns, such as temperature, precipitation, and humidity.