The Preference Bias of Buteo hemilasius On the Group Size of Over-wintering Colonies of Brandt’s Vole
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State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100085,,Locust and Rodent Control Headerquarters of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,Xianghuangqi Grassland Station, Xilinguole district, Inner Mongolia,Xianghuangqi Grassland Station, Xilinguole district, Inner Mongolia,Taipusiqi Meteorological Bureau, Xilinguole district, Inner Mongolia,Taipusiqi Soil and Fertilizer Station, Xilinguole district, Inner Mongolia

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    Abstract:

    Group sizes of Lasiopodomys brandtii overwintering colonies could affect colonies’ predation risks. Using the number of barrows of Brandt’s vole colony as an indicator of family group size, we studied how group sizes of Brandt’s vole’s affect the predation preference of Buteo hemilasius’s in Xilinguole typical steppe, Inner Mongolia, in the fall of 2004. The result shows that Buteo hemilasius significantly prefers to high number of group sizes of vole’s colonies. This finding indicates that the colonies with larger size result into a higher predator risk. It explains why Brandt’s vole dispersal happened during fall, Brandt’s vole colonies choose to reduce their group sizes to avoid predation risk. Such result also supports the optimum group size theory of small mammals.

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JIA Ju-Jie, LI Feng, NI Yi-Fei, LIN Jun, XU Yun-Hu, HE Bing, WANG Yu-Mei, ZHAO Jing-Rui. 2015. The Preference Bias of Buteo hemilasius On the Group Size of Over-wintering Colonies of Brandt’s Vole. Chinese Journal of Zoology, 50(5): 795-800.

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History
  • Received:January 10,2015
  • Revised:August 10,2015
  • Adopted:August 10,2015
  • Online: September 16,2015
  • Published: