ABSTRACT
Diet analysis of potential small mammals pest species is important for understanding feeding ecology and evaluating their impact on crops and stored foods. Chinese mole shrew (Anourosorex squamipes), distributed in Southwest China, has previously been reported as a farmland pest. Effective population management of this species requires a better understanding of its diet, which can be difficult to determine with high taxonomic resolution using conventional microhistological methods. In this study, we used two DNA metabarcoding assays to identify 38 animal species and 65 plant genera from shrew stomach contents, which suggest that A. squamipes is an omnivorous generalist. Earthworms are the most prevalent (>90%) and abundant (>80%) food items in the diverse diet of A. squamipes. Species of the Fabaceae (frequency of occurrence [FO]: 88%; such as peanuts) and Poaceae (FO: 71%; such as rice) families were the most common plant foods identified in the diet of A. squamipes. Additionally, we found a seasonal decrease in the diversity and abundance of invertebrate foods from spring and summer to winter. Chinese mole shrew has a diverse and flexible diet throughout the year to adapt to seasonal variations in food availability, contributing to its survival even when food resources are limited. This study provides a higher resolution identification of the diet of A. squamipes than has been previously described and is valuable for understanding shrew feeding ecology as well as evaluating possible species impacts on crops.
ABSTRACT
The burrows of small mammals are one of the obvious landscapes in the forest floor, and play important roles in understanding the distribution patterns of small mammals and their ecological functions in the high-frigid regions. Therefore, the burrow selection and habitat characteristics of small mammals were investigated in an alpine forest of eastern Tibet Plateau from July to September in 2015. The results indicated that the average density of small mammals burrow was 182.8 entrances per hectare. Forest vegetation had significant effects on burrow entrances density, which showed the order of coniferous vegetation (328.6 burrow entrances per hectare) > broad-leaved and coniferous mixed vegetation (160.0 burrow entrances per hectare) > shrubbery (125.0 burrow entrances per hectare) > broad-leaved vegetation (81.5 burrow entrances per hectare) > bamboo ve-getation (66.7 burrow entrances per hectare). Mann-Whitney U Test and PCA analysis displayed that the arbor canopy, arbor height, arbor DBH, arbor density, ground-plant cover, fallen log cover, fallen log density and shrub height in the small mammals utilized habitat plots were significantly higher than those in other habitat plots (P<0.05). Compared with other factors, arbor was the primary factor in dominating the selection of small mammal burrows, showing the contribution rate with 44.8%. The following dominant factors were fallen log and shrub, with the contribution rates being 23.2% and 13.9%, respectively. In summary, there were numerous small mammal burrows in the alpine forest floor, which were primarily dominated by vegetation and fallen logs.
