Wood Mice Utilize Understory Vegetation of Leafless Dead Dwarf Bamboo Culms as a Habitat and Foraging Site

Diversity Pub Date : 2024-08-01 DOI:10.3390/d16080458
Rui Kajita, Hisashi Kajimura
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Abstract

In this study, we conducted a field survey in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, to clarify whether rodent activity is affected by the presence or absence of dead culms of the dwarf bamboo Sasa borealis, a species characterized by a 120-year cycle of large-scale flowering, seeding, and dying. We found that a relatively larger number of wood mice, Apodemus speciosus and Apodemus argenteus, were caught using Sherman live traps in areas with dead S. borealis culms than in areas lacking the culms, thereby indicating that S. borealis culms, even if dead and leafless, can function as shelters in which the mice can evade predation. However, in the years when A. speciosus was abundant, A. argenteus avoided areas inhabited by A. speciosus and was restricted to areas lacking dead culms, which were devoid of shelter. A feeding experiment using Castanea crenata acorns clearly revealed that a larger number of acorns were foraged by mice in areas containing dead culms. Moreover, in the area with dead culms, the mice preferentially removed sound acorns prior to taking acorns that had been vacated by infesting moth larvae. These findings indicate that the shelter function of dead culms enables mice to carefully select sound acorns, which are nutritionally more beneficial than those that have been infested by moth larvae.
木鼠利用无叶枯矮竹秆下的林下植被作为栖息和觅食场所
在这项研究中,我们在日本中部的爱知县进行了一次实地调查,以弄清啮齿动物的活动是否会受到矮竹死秆存在与否的影响,矮竹的特点是 120 年一周期的大规模开花、播种和死亡。我们发现,使用舍曼活体诱捕器在矮竹枯秆区捕获的木鼠(Apodemus speciosus和Apodemus argenteus)数量相对多于矮竹枯秆区,这表明矮竹枯秆即使枯死且无叶,也可以作为木鼠躲避捕食的庇护所。不过,在北柴胡大量繁殖的年份,小白鼠会避开北柴胡栖息的区域,而局限于缺乏枯秆的区域,因为这些区域没有遮蔽物。用蓖麻橡子进行的喂食实验清楚地表明,在有枯秆的区域,小鼠觅食的橡子数量更多。此外,在有枯死秆的区域,小鼠优先叼走健全的橡子,然后才叼走被害虫蛾幼虫叼走的橡子。这些研究结果表明,枯秆的庇护功能使小鼠能够仔细选择健全的橡子,因为健全的橡子比被蛾幼虫侵染的橡子营养价值更高。
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