Search results for "least weasel"
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WEASELS’ (MUSTELA NIVALIS NIVALIS) PREFERENCE FOR OLFACTORY CUES OF THE VOLE (CLETHRIONOMYS GLAREOLUS)
2003
Many studies on life history strategies of small mammals under predation risk are based on assumptions that mammalian predators use scent marking from prey in searching and hunting. This is especially true for small mustelids hunting in the tunnels and cavities of their prey. It is assumed that weasels use the estrous signs of female voles as hunting cues, which exposes such females to a more pronounced risk of predation. We studied the preferences of 57 least weasels (Mustela nivalis nivalis) toward odor cues from four different reproductive categories of the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus). In the first experiment, weasels selected clearly for vole odors over clean bedding in a Y-maze…
Voles and weasels in the boreal Fennoscandian small mammal community : What happens if the least weasel disappears due to climate change?
2019
Climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats for populations and a challenge for individual behavior, interactions and survival. Predator–prey interactions are modified by climate processes. In the northern latitudes, strong seasonality is changing and the main predicted feature is shortening and instability of winter. Vole populations in the boreal Fennoscandia exhibit multiannual cycles. High amplitude peak numbers of voles and dramatic population lows alternate in 3–5‐year cycles shortening from North to South. One key factor, or driver, promoting the population crash and causing extreme extended lows, is suggested to be predation by the least weasel. We review the ar…
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…