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Squirrels — Medium-Sized Granivores in Woodland Habitats

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Activity Patterns in Small Mammals

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 141))

Abstract

A strictly diurnal activity pattern, with seasonal changes from a short unimodal pattern in winter, an intermediate one in spring and autumn, to a long, bimodal one in summer was consistent for all tree squirrel species. However, both interspecific and geographical variation occurred in the finestructure of the pattern. Moreover, tree squirrels adapted their activity to food availability and food quality by adjusting (1) the length of the active period, (2) the proportion of time spent foraging (autumn/winter) or spent feeding on primary food resources, and (3) the amount of time spent searching for food. Hence, differences in food availability (and rate of food intake) between woodland types caused habitat-related variation in the squirre’s activity pattern (Wauters et al. 1992). Little is yet known about how intraspecific competition affects the activity pattern of squirrels of different age and sex. It will need detailed studies of radio-tagged subadult and adult animals with overlapping home ranges to gain more insight into time-related home range use and behavioural mechanisms that might decrease the intensity of competition for space and food resources in non-territorial tree squirrels.

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Authors
  1. Luc A. Wauters
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Dornburger Str. 159, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Stefan Halle

  2. Department of Biology Division of Zoology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1050, Blindern, 03160 Oslo 3, Norway

    Nils Christian Stenseth

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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Wauters, L.A. (2000). Squirrels — Medium-Sized Granivores in Woodland Habitats. In: Halle, S., Stenseth, N.C. (eds) Activity Patterns in Small Mammals. Ecological Studies, vol 141. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18264-8_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18264-8_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-62128-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-18264-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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