Search results for "bank vole"

Temporal dynamics of the tick Ixodes ricinus in northern Europe : epidemiological implications

2017

Background Tick-borne pathogens pose an increasing threat to human and veterinary health across the northern hemisphere. While the seasonal activity of ticks is largely determined by climatic conditions, host-population dynamics are also likely to affect tick abundance. Consequently, abundance fluctuations of rodents in northern Europe are expected to be translated into tick dynamics, and can hence potentially affect the circulation of tick-borne pathogens. We quantified and explained the temporal dynamics of the tick Ixodes ricinus in the northernmost part of its European geographical range, by estimating (i) abundance in vegetation and (ii) infestation load in the most common rodent speci…

Socio-Reproductive Conflicts and the Father’s Curse Dilemma

2018

Evolutionary conflicts between males and females can manifest over sexually antagonistic interactions at loci or over sexually antagonistic interests within a locus. The latter form of conflict, intralocus sexual conflict, arises from sexually antagonistic selection and constrains the fitness of individuals through a phenotypic compromise. These conflicts, and socio-reproductive interactions in general, are commonly mediated by hormones, and thus predictive insights can be gained from studying their mediating effects. Here, we integrate several lines of evidence to describe a novel, hormonally mediated reproductive dilemma that we call the father’s curse, which results from an intralocus co…

Skin and gut microbiomes of a wild mammal respond to different environmental cues

2018

Background Animal skin and gut microbiomes are important components of host fitness. However, the processes that shape the microbiomes of wildlife are poorly understood, particularly with regard to exposure to environmental contaminants. We used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to quantify how exposure to radionuclides impacts the skin and gut microbiota of a small mammal, the bank vole Myodes glareolus, inhabiting areas within and outside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ), Ukraine. Results Skin microbiomes of male bank voles were more diverse than females. However, the most pronounced differences in skin microbiomes occurred at a larger spatial scale, with higher alpha diversity in the skin m…

Transcriptional Upregulation of DNA Damage Response Genes in Bank Voles (Myodes glareolus) Inhabiting the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

2018

Exposure to ionizing radiation (IR) from radionuclides released into the environment can damage DNA. An expected response to exposure to environmental radionuclides, therefore, is initiation of DNA damage response (DDR) pathways. Increased DNA damage is a characteristic of many organisms exposed to radionuclides but expression of DDR genes of wildlife inhabiting an area contaminated by radionuclides is poorly understood. We quantified expression of five central DDR genes Atm, Mre11, p53, Brca1, and p21 in the livers of the bank vole Myodes glareolus that inhabited areas within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) that differed in levels of ambient radioactivity, and also from control areas ou…

Artificial selection for predatory behavior results in dietary niche differentiation in an omnivorous mammal

2021

AbstractThe diet of an individual is a result of the availability of dietary items and the individual’s foraging skills and preferences. Behavioral differences may thus influence diet variation, but the evolvability of diet choice through behavioral evolution has not been studied. We used experimental evolution combined with a field enclosure experiment to test whether behavioral selection leads to dietary divergence. We analysed the individual dietary niche via stable isotope ratios of nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C) in the hair of an omnivorous mammal, bank vole, from 4 lines selected for predatory behavior and 4 unselected control lines. Predatory voles had higher hair δ15N values than…

Does risk of predation by mammalian predators affect the spacing behaviour of rodents? Two large-scale experiments.

2000

Predator-prey interactions between small mammals and their avian and mammalian predators have attracted much attention. However, large-scale field experiments examining small-mammal antipredatory responses under the risk of predation by mammals are rare. As recently pointed out, the scale of experiments may cause misleading results in studies of decision-making under predation risk. We studied the effect of small mustelid predators on the spacing behaviour of the gray-tailed vole (Microtus canicaudus) and the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) in two separate field enclosure experiments. The experiments were conducted during the breeding season in North America and northern Europe, where s…

Genotype-by-Environment Interactions and Reliable Signaling of Male Quality in Bank Voles

2014

Predation on two vole species by a shared predator: antipredatory response and prey preference

2008

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…

Phenotypic Flexibility in the Social Organization of Clethrionomys

1990

I review the flexibility of social organization and spacing behavior in Clethrionomys. This review is based on a 6-year comparative study and several experimental studies on cyclic populations of the bank vole, C. glareolus, in Central Finland. The social organization of Clethrionomys populations shows great flexibility during both the breeding and nonbreeding season, and is dependent on habitat patchiness, food availability, Predation, kinship, philopatry, and familiarity between individuals. The first three factors are most important in destabilizing a population, whereas the last three stabilize a population without exhausting its resources. Female territoriality can weaken in a producti…

A Comparative Study of Phenotypic Changes in Microtus Social Organization

1990

Monogamy, polygyny, and promiscuity have been found in populations of M. oeconomus and M. agrestis in different environmental situations in northern Finland. Thus the mating systems seem to be more variable both between and within species in Microtus than in Clethrionomys. Spacing behavior in Microtus caused a temporary decline in population density in mid-summer, but in Clethrionomys a decline occurred only in the beginning of the breeding season. Habitat quality affected spacing behavior in similar ways in Microtus and Clethrionomys but did not affect differences in breeding limitation. Despite the differences in population regulation, both Clethrionomys and Microtus populations cycle syn…