Experimental investigation of inter-relations between small rodents and red wood ants
Ya. V. Levenets1, V. S. Gromov2, Zh. I. Reznikova1,3, S. N. Panteleeva1,3
1Institute of Animal Systematics and Ecology of SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia
2Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of RAS, Moscow, Russia
3Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia
Keywords: мышевидные грызуны, муравьи, межвидовые взаимодействия, поведение, small rodents, red wood ants, interspecies relations, behavior
Abstract
Investigations of the mechanisms of spatial - behavioral interaction of members of such diverse and significant guilds as red wood ants and small mammals have been started only recently, and many questions remain obscure. In laboratory experiments we investigated inter-relations between red wood ants Formica aquilonia Yarr and the common vole Microtus arvalis Pallas, the bank vole Myodes glareolus Schreber, and the pygmy wood mouse Sylvaemus uralensis Pallas. We first described the defensive behavior of rodents and revealed a stereotype of the hunting behavior of the common vole towards dangerous insects. In all three rodent species, defensive behavior increased with an increase in the number of ants used in the tests, which corresponded to simulated natural situations with gradations of the dynamic density of insects. We speculate about the relationship between the defensive and hunting behavior of rodents towards red wood ants.
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