Journal article

Publication year: 1991

Pages: 143-151

Journal: Folia Zoologica -Praha-

Volume number: 40

Issue number: 2

ISSN: 0139-7893

eISSN: 1573-1189

Publisher: Institute of Vertibrate Biology

Abstract: 

Studies on the nutrition ecology of Microtus arvalis (Rodentia, Microtidae) were made by analyzing the stomach contents of 363 individuals (186 females ,177 males) caught between 1984-1987 with baited snap traps on five plots of permanent meadow in central Hessia (Federal Republic of Germany). Evaluation was carried out separately regarding young, subadult, and adult voles and regarding males and females. Attention was focussed on the relations between supply and intake of monocotyledon and dicotyledon plant material concerning volume percentages as well as number of species.

Volume percentage of dicotyledons in stomachs was found to be < 80 % in more than one half and < 20 % only in about one fourth of all examined individuals. On the other hand, the mean number of monocotyledons in stomachs nearly always exceeded that of dicotyledons. This is rather remarkable because these relations in stomach content composition were found to be the very opposite of the relations of the composition of the vegetation cover: Dicotyledons comprised about 30 % of the vegetation cover on the plots, but about 63.5 % of all stomach contents. Furthermore, while only 15 monocytoledon but 33 dicotyledon species were identified on the plots, the mean number of monocotyledons in stomachs always exceeded that of dicotyledons. Thus it may be concluded that separate considerations about volume percentages and number of species are necessary in stomach content analyses of Microtus arvalis.

A possible explanation for these results is given.

Harvard Citation style: RINKE, T. (1991) PERCENTAGE OF VOLUME VERSUS NUMBER OF SPECIES - AVAILABILITY AND INTAKE OF GRASSES AND FORBS IN MICROTUS-ARVALIS, Folia Zoologica -Praha-, 40(2), pp. 143-151

APA Citation style: RINKE, T. (1991). PERCENTAGE OF VOLUME VERSUS NUMBER OF SPECIES - AVAILABILITY AND INTAKE OF GRASSES AND FORBS IN MICROTUS-ARVALIS. Folia Zoologica -Praha-. 40(2), 143-151.