0000000000459354
AUTHOR
Lenka Trebatická
Predation risk and reproduction in the bank vole
Context Life-history strategies are the means that organisms use to achieve successful reproduction in environments that vary in time and space. Individual animals maximise life-time reproductive success (LRS) through optimal timing of reproduction and investment in offspring. A crucial factor affecting LRS is predation risk in a highly seasonal environment. According to the breeding-suppression hypothesis (BSH), females should delay breeding under short periods of high predation risk. Delayed breeding under risk is suggested to have substantial consequences for females’ fitness. Aims We tested the BSH in an iteroparous boreal small rodent, the bank vole, Myodes glareolus. Methods We used …
State-dependent foraging: lactating voles adjust their foraging behavior according to the presence of a potential nest predator and season
Parental care often produces a trade-off between meeting nutritional demands of offspring and the duties of offspring protection, especially in altricial species. Parents have to leave their young unattended for foraging trips, during which nestlings are exposed to predators. We investigated how rodent mothers of altricial young respond to risk of nest predation in their foraging decisions. We studied foraging behavior of lactating bank voles (Myodes glareolus) exposed to a nest predator, the common shrew (Sorex araneus). We conducted the experiment in summer (high resource provisioning for both species) and autumn (less food available) in 12 replicates with fully crossed factors “shrew pre…
Is reproduction really costly? Energy metabolism of bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) females through the reproductive cycle
Energetic requirements during reproduction are important determinants of the onset of reproduction and of breeding strategy (e.g., breeding post-partum) and therefore affect female reproductive output in seasonally varying environments. To balance the energetic needs of breeding with energy availability, females must optimize energy allocation between their own energy use and energy allocated to their litter. Here, we studied energetic costs and potential energetic trade-offs of reproduction in female bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus). We measured energy consumption, i.e., metabolic rates as determined from carbon dioxide production of females either with their pups (breeding unit) to fi…
Predation on two vole species by a shared predator: antipredatory response and prey preference
In prey communities with shared predators, variation in prey vulnerability is a key factor in shaping community dynamics. Conversely, the hunting efficiency of a predator depends on the prey community structure, preferences of the predator and antipredatory behavioural traits of the prey. We studied experimentally, under seminatural field conditions, the preferences of a predator and the antipredatory responses of prey in a system consisting of two Myodes species of voles, the grey-sided vole (M. rufocanus Sund.) and the bank vole (M. glareolus Schreb.), and their specialist predator, the least weasel (Mustela nivalis nivalis L.). To quantify the preference of the weasels, we developed a ne…