What determines the way of deposition of excavated soil |
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Authors: | Jan Šklíba Radim Šumbera Wilbert N Chitaukali |
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Institution: | 1.Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science,University of South Bohemia,?eské Budìjovice,Czech Republic;2.Biology Department, Chancellor College,University of Malawi,Zomba,Malawi |
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Abstract: | Subterranean rodents continuously extend their burrow systems primarily in search of food, which has an important impact on
the ecosystem in which they live. Excavated soil may be pushed either into aboveground mounds or into tunnels underground.
Factors affecting the amount of burrowing and the preference of aboveground or underground soil deposition are, nevertheless,
little known. We investigated the influence of food supply, soil hardness, and the animal’s body mass on the mode of soil
deposition in ten burrow systems of free ranging silvery mole-rats Heliophobius argenteocinereus Peters, 1846. In each burrow system, we estimated the volume of backfilled tunnels and the volume of soil deposited aboveground.
The highest amount of variation in these parameters was explained by the interaction of food supply and soil hardness. The
ratio of the volume of backfilled tunnels to the volume of mounds was not significantly dependent on any of the explanatory
variables. The proportion of backfilled tunnels decreased with the increasing volume of the complete burrow system. We propose
that both low food supply and soft soil lead to an increased amount of burrowing, which results in a larger volume of soil
deposited both above ground and under ground over a given period of time. |
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