艾虎对猎物和捕食者气味的反应
Response of the Steppe Polecat (Mustela eversmanni) to the Odors of Prey and Predator
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摘要: 在室内条件下通过双通道选择实验确定艾虎(Mustela eversmanni)在通过不同气味源的场所中的取食量以及利用时间和利用频次，由此分析捕食者气味和猎物气味对艾虎取食行为的影响。研究结果表明，在无任何气味源存在时，艾虎在对照气味和对照气味组这两个场所中的取食量、活动时间和活动频次基本一致。在猎物高原鼠兔(Ochotona curzoniae)气味和对照气味组及高原鼢鼠(Myospalax baileyi)气味和对照气味组的两组实验中，艾虎在通过猎物气味的场所中的取食量、活动时间和活动频次与对照气味场所中比较也无明显的差异，但是在天敌动物赤狐(Vulpes vulpes)气味存在的条件下，艾虎明显减少在通过赤狐气味的场所中的取食量、活动时间和活动频次。同时，当间接捕食风险天敌动物赤狐气味存在时，艾虎明显增加了总的取食量，减少了在巢箱中居住的时间，而将更多的时间停留在无风险的场所中，这说明艾虎能够利用天敌动物赤狐的气味，采用增加取食量和减少高风险区域活动时间的策略来降低被捕食风险。Abstract: The food intake, duration of stay and frequency of visitation of the steppe polecat (Mustela eversmanni) staying in places with different species' odors were investigated through the two-choice test in the laboratory, and the effects of different species' odors on the feeding behaviors of the polecats were determined. The results showed that the food intake, duration of stay and frequency of visitation of the polecat were the same when there were no odors in either of the two patches. The odors of two prey species, the zokor (Myospalax baileyi) and the pika (Ochotona curzoniae) had no significant influence on the polecat behaviour compared with the controls. The variables were all much higher in the control site than in the site of the red fox's odor, The polecat significantly increased total food intake, decreased the living time in nest boxes and spent more time in the control place when the odor of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) existed in the other patch, as indirect predation risk existed. The polecat had the ability to decrease the predation risk through the strategy of increasing the food intake and decreasing the time of staying in the high predation risk patch.
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