Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published online by De Gruyter May 23, 2022

Long-distance dispersal of two species of shrews (Sorex caecutiens Laxmann, 1788 and Sorex minutus Linnaeus, 1766)

Svetlana Mukhacheva ORCID logo and Oleg Tolkachev ORCID logo
From the journal Mammalia
https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2021-0188

Abstract

Data on the dispersal of shrews are still rare, and for some species of Soricidae these are not available at all. Group marking with bait containing rhodamine B was used to study the dispersal of two species of shrews – Laxmann’s shrew (Sorex caecutiens) and pygmy shrew (Sorex minutus) in the Middle Urals (Russia). Twelve Laxmann’s shrews moved straight-line distances ranging from 80 to 4500 m. Five pygmy shrews dispersed from 475 to 2570 m. The are first field data obtained on dispersal distances of the pygmy shrew. The reported dispersal distances of the Laxmann`s shrew are the maximum known for this species.

Keywords: dispersal; long-distance movements; rhodamine B; shrews
Corresponding author: Svetlana Mukhacheva, Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg 620144, Russia, E-mail:

Funding source: Russian Foundation for Basic Researchhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002261

Award Identifier / Grant number: 20-04-00164a

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to E.A. Belskaya and M.P. Zolotarev, who provided shrews from Barber pitfall traps, and to Yu.L. Sumorokov, E.Yu. Sumorokova, and S.Yu. Sumorokov for their help with the field studies, and we thanks the reviewers for constructive comments on the manuscript.

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: This study was performed within the framework of a state contract with the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (themes 122021000082-0, 122021000076-9), and partly supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant no. 20-04-00164a).

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

  4. Research ethics: All applicable international, national, and institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. The Bioethics Commission of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch, RAS, approved the study (No: 6 May 18, 2021).

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Received: 2021-12-01
Accepted: 2022-03-09
Published Online: 2022-05-23

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