O espaço subterrâneo do rato-de-espinho Clyomys bishopi: caracterização e previsões possí­veis sobre sua biologia comportamental

Abstract

Luchesi, L. C. (2019). The subterranean space of spiny rat Clyomys bishopi: characterization and predictions about its behavioral biology. (Thesis-PhD).

Behavioral repertoire of the Brazilian spiny-rats, Trinomys setosus and Clyomys laticeps: different levels of sociality

“…No significant sexual dimorphism was found in the genus Clyomys (Bezerra and Oliveira 2010), which could explain the females' apparent dominance and argue a monogamy hypothesis, as seen in Galea monasteriensis (Hohoff et al, 2002). When we excavated free-living populations' burrow systems, we found only one individual inhabiting each system (Luchesi, 2019). The social environment of a Clyomys female seems to be a colony of dozens of independent underground burrow systems, where she interacts over the ground with familiar animals of the colony (Bezerra et al, 2016).…”

“…Clyomys laticeps got restricted to the Cerrado today (Bezerra and Oliveira, 2010), living on grassland open areas and their underground (Thomas, 1916;Bishop, 1974). This species excavates burrow systems in the sandy soil and stays there during the light phase, probably as shelter from predators and to the extreme climatic stressful fluctuations (Ferrando and Leiner, 2018), and may use the underground as a safe route among foraging areas (Luchesi, 2019).…”

“…We did not register C. laticeps digging and hiding food but found cached food inside the shelters we provided. Studies with free-living populations cite burrows filled with stored food items (Lamberto and Leiner, 2019;Luchesi, 2019). Food hoarding strategy seems to be conservated in the three environments among echiymid species (tropical forest, Cerrado, and Caatinga).…”