THE DAILY AND SEASONAL FEEDING ACTIVITY OF THE BLIND MOLE RAT (SPALAX MICROPHTALMUS, RODENTLk, SPALACIDAE)

摘要

The activity of the blind mole rat by means of a new technique is studied. New data on the features of daily and seasonal underground life of the blind mole rat in an isolated peripheral population in Mordovia, Russia are obtained. The polyphase daily activity is best expressed during the spring and early autumn periods. In spring, the maximum activity (about 20% of all daily records in individual hours) is confined to the periods from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. and then from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. The peak activity during the early autumn period is recorded from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. At night the activity of these small animals during different seasons of the year is always low. The burrowing activity begins after midnight and stops at 5:00 a.m. at daybreak, as a rule. The maximum evening duration of the dormant period in summer lasts 5 h. Statistically significant differences in average monthly passes of the blind mole rat inside the burrow per day are revealed with the use of Mann-Whitney U test (p < 0.05).