Soil preference in blind mole rats in an area of supposed sympatric speciation: do they choose the fertile or the familiar?

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12310%2F17%3A43895642" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12310/17:43895642 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jzo.12489/epdf" target="_blank" >http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jzo.12489/epdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12489" target="_blank" >10.1111/jzo.12489</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Soil preference in blind mole rats in an area of supposed sympatric speciation: do they choose the fertile or the familiar?

Original language description

Animals become adapted to different habitats, which, under some circumstances, may lead to speciation. Such speciation can possibly take place even in sympatry, as has recently been suggested in the blind mole rat Spalax galili surveyed at a microsite where two soil types of ecologically contrasting characteristics, basaltic soil and rendzina soil, abut each other. Such speciation would be possible if mole rats developed reproductive isolation, for example, by means of habitat choice. In our study, we quantified food supply and soil characteristics of 20 blind mole rat burrow systems in both soils at a new microsite and tested the mole rat&apos;s soil preference in a T-maze. The basaltic soil was harder and heavier than the rendzina soil, and had higher density and biomass of food, which is comparable to the published data from the only other studied microsite 3.7km apart. Mole rats preferred to burrow in their familiar soil, when the tested soils were moist. After the soils were dried, both groups of mole rats tended to burrow preferentially in the rendzina soil, nevertheless, this preference was only significant in rendzina-soil mole rats. We propose that after the suppression of olfactory cues mole rats preferred to burrow in soil with lower energetic costs of burrowing. We suggest that soil preference by mole rats is effective mainly in moist soil that releases specific odorous cues, which coincides with mating season and natal dispersal. This preference could also play an important causative role in reproductive isolation of the two blind mole rat populations.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10613 - Zoology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GP14-31670P" target="_blank" >GP14-31670P: The subterranean blind mole rat: a new mammalian model on the sympatric speciation battlefield</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2017

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Journal of Zoology

ISSN

0952-8369

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

303

Issue of the periodical within the volume

4

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

10

Pages from-to

291-300

UT code for WoS article

000416934900006

EID of the result in the Scopus database

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