INVESTIGADORES
CUTRERA Ana paula
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Home range and daily movements of the South American subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum
Autor/es:
CUTRERA, A.P, C.D. ANTINUCHI, M.MORA Y A.I. VASSALLO.
Lugar:
Sapporo, Japon
Reunión:
Conferencia; 9th International Mammalogical Conference; 2005
Institución organizadora:
International Mammalogical Conference Committee.
Resumen:
Home range is the area traveled by an organism during its normal activities, such as food gathering, mating and caring for the young. Estimating its size, shape and structure provides information about social cohesion, territorial behavior and habitat use of a certain species. For animals with secretive habits, such as subterranean rodents, radiotracking becomes an essential tool to collect data systematically on their behavior and, particularly, characteristics of their space use and rate of movement. Ctenomys talarum (tuco-tuco) is a solitary subterranean rodent which is distributed along the sand dunes on the Atlantic coast of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Male tucos are the more aggressive and territorial sex, they establish hierarchies prior to the mating season and mate with more than one female. This led us to predict that males should have a larger home range and a higher rate of daily movement than females, as correlates of a stronger territorial behavior. To test this, 5 males and 6 females of C. talarum were equipped with radiocollars and tracked during the day for 6-11 days from mid-February to mid-April, 2005 in Mar de Cobo (37o 45 S, 57o 56W), Argentina. Data on home range size, structure and percentage of overlap between the individual´s home ranges were obtained and patterns of daily movements were recorded for each individual in 24-hr sessions. These results on home range characteristics are compared with those obtained previously through mark-recapture programs and studies of size and structure of the burrows of C. talarum. Patterns of daily movements recorded in the field during this study will be compared with those of rhythmicity and daily activities obtained in previous studies conducted in semi-natural conditions for the species.
