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Apodemus Speciosus
The large Japanese field mouse (''Apodemus speciosus'') is a nocturnal species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is endemic to Japan. Distribution and habitat The species appears to be present on all Japanese islands. It inhabits forests, grasslands, and cultivated fields, including rice paddies, at any altitude. Though occupying the same broad ecological niche as ''A. argenteus'', the two species prefer different microhabitats: ''A. argenteus'' prefers dense canopy, while ''A. speciosus'' prefers open secondary forests. Foraging behavior Large Japanese field mice forage primarily at night, likely to avoid predation. They are omnivores but mostly known to be seed-eating mice, particularly around autumn and winter, as the mice hoard acorns and walnuts, which comprise 13-100% of their food. This makes them effective seed dispersers. Mast seeding can have serious effects on field mouse populations, including increases in overwinter survival, winter reproduction, and population de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coenraad Jacob Temminck
Coenraad Jacob Temminck (; 31 March 1778 – 30 January 1858) was a Dutch people, Dutch patrician, Zoology, zoologist and museum director. Biography Coenraad Jacob Temminck was born on 31 March 1778 in Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic. From his father, Jacob Temminck, who was treasurer of the Dutch East India Company with links to numerous travellers and collectors, he inherited a large collection of bird specimens. His father was a good friend of Francois Levaillant who also guided Coenraad. Temminck's ''Manuel d'ornithologie, ou Tableau systématique des oiseaux qui se trouvent en Europe'' (1815) was the standard work on European birds for many years. He was also the author of ''Histoire naturelle générale des Pigeons et des Gallinacées'' (1813–1817), illustrated by Pauline Rifer de Courcelles, Pauline Knip. He wrote ''Nouveau Recueil de Planches coloriées d'Oiseaux'' (1820–1839), and contributed to the mammalian sections of Philipp Franz von Siebold's ''Fauna jap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are native to all major land masses except for Antarctica, and several oceanic islands, though they have subsequently been introduced to most of these land masses by human activity. Rodents are extremely diverse in their ecology and lifestyles and can be found in almost every terrestrial habitat, including human-made environments. Species can be arboreal, fossorial (burrowing), saltatorial/ricochetal (leaping on their hind legs), or semiaquatic. However, all rodents share several morphological features, including having only a single upper and lower pair of ever-growing incisors. Well-known rodents include Mouse, mice, rats, squirrels, prairie dogs, porcupines, beavers, Cavia, guinea pigs, and hamsters. Once included wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muridae
The Muridae, or murids, are either the largest or second-largest family of rodents and of mammals, containing approximately 870 species, including many species of mice, rats, and gerbils found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. The name Muridae comes from the Latin ' (genitive '), meaning "mouse", since all true mice belong to the family, with the more typical mice belonging to the genus ''Mus (genus), Mus''. Distribution and habitat Murids are found nearly everywhere in the world, though many subfamilies have narrower ranges. Murids are not found in Antarctica or many oceanic islands. Although none of them are native to the Americas, a few species, notably the house mouse and black rat, have been introduced worldwide. Murids occupy a broad range of ecosystems from tropical forests to tundras. Fossorial, arboreal, and semiaquatic murid species occur, though most are terrestrial animals. The extensive list of niches filled by murids helps to explain their relat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemism
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or, in scientific literature, as an ''endemite''. Similarly, many species found in the Western ghats of India are examples of endemism. Endemism is an important concept in conservation biology for measuring biodiversity in a particular place and evaluating the risk of extinction for species. Endemism is also of interest in evolutionary biology, because it provides clues about how changes in the environment cause species to undergo range shifts (potentially expanding their range into a larger area or b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secondary Forest
A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or equivalently disruptive natural phenomena. It is distinguished from an old-growth forest (primary or primeval forest), which has not recently undergone such disruption, and complex early Seral community, seral forest, as well as third-growth forests that result from harvest in second growth forests. Secondary forest regrowing after timber harvest differs from forest Ecological succession, regrowing after natural Disturbance (ecology), disturbances such as Wildfire, fire, insect infestation, or windthrow because the dead trees remain to provide nutrients, structure, and water retention after natural disturbances. Secondary forests are notably different from primary forests in their composition and biodiversity; however, they may still be hel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omnivore
An omnivore () is an animal that regularly consumes significant quantities of both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nutrients and energy of the sources absorbed. Often, they have the ability to incorporate food sources such as algae, fungi, and bacteria into their diet. Omnivores come from diverse backgrounds that often independently evolved sophisticated consumption capabilities. For instance, dogs evolved from primarily carnivorous organisms (Carnivora) while pigs evolved from primarily herbivorous organisms (Artiodactyla). Despite this, physical characteristics such as tooth morphology may be reliable indicators of diet in mammals, with such morphological adaptation having been observed in bears. The variety of different animals that are classified as omnivores can be placed into further sub-categories depending on their feeding behaviors. Frug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seed Predation
Seed predation, often referred to as granivory, is a type of plant-animal interaction in which granivores (seed predators) feed on the seeds of plants as a main or exclusive food source,Hulme, P.E. and Benkman, C.W. (2002) "Granivory", pp. 132–154 in ''Plant animal Interactions: An Evolutionary Approach'', ed. C.M. Herrera and O. Pellmyr. Oxford: Blackwell. . in many cases leaving the seeds damaged and not viable. Granivores are found across many families of vertebrates (especially mammals and birds) as well as invertebrates (mainly insects); thus, seed predation occurs in virtually all terrestrial ecosystems. Seed predation is commonly divided into two distinctive temporal categories, pre-dispersal and post-dispersal predation, which affect the fitness of the parental plant and the dispersed offspring (the seed), respectively. Mitigating pre- and post-dispersal predation may involve different strategies. To counter seed predation, plants have evolved both physical defenses ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acorn
The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), enclosed in a tough Nutshell, shell known as the pericarp, and borne in a cup-shaped Calybium, cupule. Acorns are long and on the fat side. Acorns take between 5 and 24 months (depending on the species) to mature; see the List of Quercus species, list of ''Quercus'' species for details of oak classification, in which acorn morphology (biology), morphology and phenology are important factors. Etymology The word ''acorn'' (earlier ''akerne'', and ''acharn'') is related to the gothic language, Gothic name ''akran'', which had the sense of "fruit of the unenclosed land". The word was applied to the most important forest produce, that of the oak. Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer spoke of "achornes of okes" in the 14th century. By degrees, popular etym ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walnut
A walnut is the edible seed of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. They are accessory fruit because the outer covering of the fruit is technically an involucre and thus not morphologically part of the carpel; this means it cannot be a drupe but is instead a drupe-like nut. After full ripening, the shell is discarded, and the kernel is eaten. Nuts of the eastern black walnut ('' Juglans nigra'') and butternuts ('' Juglans cinerea'') are less commonly consumed. Description Walnuts are the round, single-seed stone fruits of the walnut tree. They ripen between September and November in the northern hemisphere. The brown, wrinkly walnut shell is enclosed in a husk. Shells of walnuts available in commerce usually have two segments (but three or four-segment shells can also form). During the bumming process, the husk becomes brittle and the shell hard. The shell encloses the kernel or meat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mast Seeding
Mast is the fruit of forest trees and shrubs, such as acorns and other nuts. The term derives from the Old English ''mæst'', meaning the nuts of forest trees that have accumulated on the ground, especially those used historically for fattening domestic pigs, and as food resources for wildlife. In the aseasonal tropics of Southeast Asia, entire forests, including hundreds of species of trees and shrubs, are known to mast at irregular periods of 2–12 years. More generally, mast is considered the edible vegetative or reproductive parts produced by woody species of plants, i.e. trees and shrubs, that wildlife and some domestic animals consume as a food source. Mast is generated in large quantities during long-interval but regularly recurring phenological events known as mast seeding or masting. Such events are population-level phenomena hypothesized to be driven by a wide variety of factors, depending on the plant species involved, including availability of nutrients, economies of s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tannin
Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and Precipitation (chemistry), precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids. The term ''tannin'' is widely applied to any large polyphenolic compound containing sufficient hydroxyls and other suitable groups (such as carboxyls) to form strong complexes with various macromolecules. The term ''tannin'' (from scientific French ''tannin'', from French ''tan'' "crushed oak bark", ''tanner'' "to tan", cognate with English language, English ''tanning'', Medieval Latin ''tannare'', from Proto-Celtic ''*tannos'' "oak") refers to the abundance of these compounds in oak Bark (botany), bark, which was used in Tanning (leather), tanning animal Hide (skin), hides into leather. The tannin compounds are widely distributed in many species of plants, where they play a role in protection from predation (acting as pesticides) and might help in regulating plant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rats Of Asia
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' (pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot rats) and ''Dipodomys'' (kangaroo rats). Rats are typically distinguished from mouse, mice by their size. Usually the common name of a large muroid rodent will include the word "rat", while a smaller muroid's name will include "mouse". The common terms ''rat'' and ''mouse'' are not Taxonomy (biology), taxonomically specific. There are 56 known species of rats in the world. Species and description The best-known rat species are the black rat (''Rattus rattus'') and the brown rat (''Rattus norvegicus''). This group, generally known as the Old World rats or true rats, originated in Asia. Rats are bigger than most Old World mouse, mice, which are their relatives, but seldom weigh over in the wild. The term ''rat'' is also used in the names ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
