FORAGING STRATEGY OF PLATEAU ZOKORS (EOSPALAX BAILEYI THOMAS) WHEN COLLECTING FOOD FOR WINTER CACHES

NWIPB OpenIR

	FORAGING STRATEGY OF PLATEAU ZOKORS (EOSPALAX BAILEYI THOMAS) WHEN COLLECTING FOOD FOR WINTER CACHES
	Xie, Jiu-Xiang ; Lin, Gong-Hua ; Zhang, Tong-Zuo ; Su, Jian Ping
	2014
发表期刊	POLISH JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY ; Xie, JX; Lin, GH; Zhang, TZ; Su, JP.FORAGING STRATEGY OF PLATEAU ZOKORS (EOSPALAX BAILEYI THOMAS) WHEN COLLECTING FOOD FOR WINTER CACHES,POLISH JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY,2014,62(1):173
摘要	Subterranean life style is characterized by limited food resource and energy consuming burrow behavior. Subterranean rodents are usually recognized as dietary generalists. In the current study, we investigated the species composition of winter caches of plateau zokors (Eospalax baileyi), and the dissimilarity of species composition in caches and in the vicinity of the burrows. We have made our research in Kobresia dominated vegetation at the altitude 3200 m a.s.l. We used the non-parametric method to test the similarities between the relative dry mass of the plant species within caches and their closed vicinity. This method was based on measures of distance between pairs of individual multivariate observations. Our results revealed that although plateau zokors cached most (60) of the plant species found in the vicinity of their burrow systems (66), the cached dry mass was dominated by a few species. Nine plant species accounted for 80% dry mass of plants present in zokors' caches, Polygonum viviparum (50%) and other perennial poisonous forbs constitute 70% dry mass of the caches. Results showed that the dissimilarity between the relative dry mass of plant species within caches and in their vicinity was extremely significant (for Bray-Curtis distance measure, R = 0.355, P = 0.000; for Euclidean distance measure R =0.319, P =0.000). These results showed that plateau zokors don't forage randomly when collecting food for winter caches. We suppose that rather than using a non-selective foraging strategy by dealing with high fiber-content plants, plateau zokors have forged another dietary strategy to meet the energy demands in the evolutionary process: to deal with poisonous forbs.; Subterranean life style is characterized by limited food resource and energy consuming burrow behavior. Subterranean rodents are usually recognized as dietary generalists. In the current study, we investigated the species composition of winter caches of plateau zokors (Eospalax baileyi), and the dissimilarity of species composition in caches and in the vicinity of the burrows. We have made our research in Kobresia dominated vegetation at the altitude 3200 m a.s.l. We used the non-parametric method to test the similarities between the relative dry mass of the plant species within caches and their closed vicinity. This method was based on measures of distance between pairs of individual multivariate observations. Our results revealed that although plateau zokors cached most (60) of the plant species found in the vicinity of their burrow systems (66), the cached dry mass was dominated by a few species. Nine plant species accounted for 80% dry mass of plants present in zokors' caches, Polygonum viviparum (50%) and other perennial poisonous forbs constitute 70% dry mass of the caches. Results showed that the dissimilarity between the relative dry mass of plant species within caches and in their vicinity was extremely significant (for Bray-Curtis distance measure, R = 0.355, P = 0.000; for Euclidean distance measure R =0.319, P =0.000). These results showed that plateau zokors don't forage randomly when collecting food for winter caches. We suppose that rather than using a non-selective foraging strategy by dealing with high fiber-content plants, plateau zokors have forged another dietary strategy to meet the energy demands in the evolutionary process: to deal with poisonous forbs.
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://210.75.249.4/handle/363003/42529
专题	中国科学院西北高原生物研究所
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Xie, Jiu-Xiang,Lin, Gong-Hua,Zhang, Tong-Zuo,et al. FORAGING STRATEGY OF PLATEAU ZOKORS (EOSPALAX BAILEYI THOMAS) WHEN COLLECTING FOOD FOR WINTER CACHES[J]. POLISH JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Xie, JX; Lin, GH; Zhang, TZ; Su, JP.FORAGING STRATEGY OF PLATEAU ZOKORS (EOSPALAX BAILEYI THOMAS) WHEN COLLECTING FOOD FOR WINTER CACHES,POLISH JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY,2014,62(1):173,2014.
APA	Xie, Jiu-Xiang,Lin, Gong-Hua,Zhang, Tong-Zuo,&Su, Jian Ping.(2014).FORAGING STRATEGY OF PLATEAU ZOKORS (EOSPALAX BAILEYI THOMAS) WHEN COLLECTING FOOD FOR WINTER CACHES.POLISH JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY.
MLA	Xie, Jiu-Xiang,et al."FORAGING STRATEGY OF PLATEAU ZOKORS (EOSPALAX BAILEYI THOMAS) WHEN COLLECTING FOOD FOR WINTER CACHES".POLISH JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY (2014).