Daily and seasonal limits of time and temperature to activity of degus

Kenagy G.J.; Nespolo, Roberto F.; Vasquez, Rodrigo A.; Bozinovic, Francisco

Abstract

"We present an analysis of behavioral flexibility in a day-active caviomorph rodent, the degu, Octodon degus, in response to temporal (daily and seasonal), spatial, and thermal heterogeneity of its environment. We quantified activity and foraging behavior in a population, together with thermal conditions, in an open habitat in the seasonally hot and arid matorral of central Chile. Summer activity was bimodal, with a gap of more than 8 h between the morning bout of 2.5 h of intensive foraging and the afternoon bout of 2 h. More than half of the 4.5 h of summer activity occurred in the shade of early morning or late afternoon when the sun was below the local skyline. Autumn and spring activity were also bimodal, but with greater proportions of activity under direct solar radiation, and with a shorter midday gap between the two major bouts. Winter activity was unimodal and all occurred under direct solar radiation. In summer, autumn, and spring the activity of degus was curtailed as our index of operative temperature, Te, moved above 40

Más información

Título según SCOPUS: Daily and seasonal limits of time and temperature to activity of degus
Título según SCIELO: Daily and seasonal limits of time and temperature to activity of degus
Título de la Revista: Revista chilena de historia natural
Volumen: 75
Número: 3
Editorial: Sociedad de Biología de Chile
Fecha de publicación: 2002
Página de inicio: 567
Página final: 581
Idioma: en
URL: http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0716-078X2002000300008&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
DOI:

10.4067/S0716-078X2002000300008

Notas: SCIELO, SCOPUS