Biomechanics and Strategies of Digging

VASSALLO AI; BECERRA, FEDERICO; ECHEVERRÍA AI; BUEZAS, GUIDO; DÍAZ AO; LONGO, MARÍA VICTORIA; COHEN, M

Tuco-Tucos An Evolutionary Approach to the Diversity of a Neotropical Subterranean Rodent

Springer Nature

Año: 2021; p. 141 - 166

For small rodents, running and hiding are the main strategies to protect themselvesfrom predators, and burrows offer an excellent shelter against most of them(Reichman and Smith 1990; Andino et al. 2014). Particularly, in arid and semiaridecosystems, digging (i.e., to break up and remove the soil) and burrowing (i.e., tohide in burrows, to construct by tunneling, or to progress by or as if by digging) arecommon behaviors in many mammals (Nevo 1999; Whitford and Kay 1999; Laceyet al. 2000; Cutrera et al. 2006). Numerous terrestrial mammals have evolved fossorialadaptations, and rodents, in particular, have repeatedly diversified into undergroundhabitats (Hopkins 2005; McIntosh and Cox 2019). Across the globe, in allcontinents but Australia and Antarctica, at least 250 extant rodent species (38 genera,6 families ? according to the classification applied) spend most of their lives inself-constructed burrows (Begall et al. 2007). Life underground is achieved throughseveral distinct methods of burrow excavation.