Seasonal pelage color change of two sympatric arboreal squirrel species in the subarctic region
application/pdf Some mammal species exhibit pelage color change with seasonal molt. Seasonal molt and pelage color change are beneficial to thermoregulation and concealment, associated with seasonal environmental change. The Eurasian red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 and the Siberian flyi...
Published in: | The European Zoological Journal |
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Language: | English |
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Taylor and Francis
2019
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Online Access: | https://obihiro.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/4600/files/24750263.2019.pdf |
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ftobihirouniv:oai:obihiro.repo.nii.ac.jp:00004600 2023-09-05T13:22:52+02:00 Seasonal pelage color change of two sympatric arboreal squirrel species in the subarctic region Mitsuzuka, Wakana Kato, M Oshida, Tatsuo 押田, 龍夫 2019-01 application/pdf https://obihiro.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/4600/files/24750263.2019.pdf eng eng Taylor and Francis doi:10.1080/24750263.2019.1682694 European Zoological Journal 1 86 443 451 24750263 https://obihiro.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/4600/files/24750263.2019.pdf This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 489 Countershading Hokkaido Pteromys volans orii Sciurus vulgaris orientis VoR 2019 ftobihirouniv https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2019.1682694 2023-08-17T23:50:54Z application/pdf Some mammal species exhibit pelage color change with seasonal molt. Seasonal molt and pelage color change are beneficial to thermoregulation and concealment, associated with seasonal environmental change. The Eurasian red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 and the Siberian flying squirrel Pteromys volans (Linnaeus, 1758) are arboreal and sympatrically distributed in the subarctic northern Eurasian Continent and Sakhalin and Hokkaido islands. We expect that diurnal S. vulgaris may demonstrate more conspicuous difference between summer and winter pelages than nocturnal P. volans, because of its protective coloration in each season. To test this conjecture, we investigated their seasonal pelage color change. To diminish the effect of geographic variation in pelage color, we chose S. vulgaris orientis Thomas, 1906 and P. volans orii (Kuroda, 1921), which are endemic subspecies of Hokkaido Island, Japan. We used skin and stuffed specimens and frozen materials and categorized them into two pelage groups (summer and winter pelages) based on collection date. Pelage color characteristics were measured with a spectrophotometer for lightness, redness and yellowness. Countershading was examined by comparing dorsal and ventral lightness. Both subspecies showed lighter winter pelage than summer pelage, suggesting their greyish-white winter pelage was beneficial to concealment from predators during winter. As we expected, seasonal changes of redness and yellowness were more clearly recognized in S. vulgaris than in P. volans. As S. vulgaris is diurnal and vulnerable to attack by diurnal avian predators, reddish and yellowish pelage patterns may be important for concealment. Because it is nocturnal, P. volans may not need this reddish and yellowish pelage. Sciurus vulgaris also had a remarkably counter-shaded body, indicating that its body may reduce predation risk from daytime visual predators. Differences in seasonal pelage color change of these two arboreal squirrels may be caused by their different ... Other/Unknown Material Sakhalin Subarctic Obihiro University: Obihiro Archives of Knowledge (OAK) The European Zoological Journal 86 1 443 451 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Obihiro University: Obihiro Archives of Knowledge (OAK) |
op_collection_id |
ftobihirouniv |
language |
English |
topic |
489 Countershading Hokkaido Pteromys volans orii Sciurus vulgaris orientis |
spellingShingle |
489 Countershading Hokkaido Pteromys volans orii Sciurus vulgaris orientis Mitsuzuka, Wakana Kato, M Oshida, Tatsuo 押田, 龍夫 Seasonal pelage color change of two sympatric arboreal squirrel species in the subarctic region |
topic_facet |
489 Countershading Hokkaido Pteromys volans orii Sciurus vulgaris orientis |
description |
application/pdf Some mammal species exhibit pelage color change with seasonal molt. Seasonal molt and pelage color change are beneficial to thermoregulation and concealment, associated with seasonal environmental change. The Eurasian red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 and the Siberian flying squirrel Pteromys volans (Linnaeus, 1758) are arboreal and sympatrically distributed in the subarctic northern Eurasian Continent and Sakhalin and Hokkaido islands. We expect that diurnal S. vulgaris may demonstrate more conspicuous difference between summer and winter pelages than nocturnal P. volans, because of its protective coloration in each season. To test this conjecture, we investigated their seasonal pelage color change. To diminish the effect of geographic variation in pelage color, we chose S. vulgaris orientis Thomas, 1906 and P. volans orii (Kuroda, 1921), which are endemic subspecies of Hokkaido Island, Japan. We used skin and stuffed specimens and frozen materials and categorized them into two pelage groups (summer and winter pelages) based on collection date. Pelage color characteristics were measured with a spectrophotometer for lightness, redness and yellowness. Countershading was examined by comparing dorsal and ventral lightness. Both subspecies showed lighter winter pelage than summer pelage, suggesting their greyish-white winter pelage was beneficial to concealment from predators during winter. As we expected, seasonal changes of redness and yellowness were more clearly recognized in S. vulgaris than in P. volans. As S. vulgaris is diurnal and vulnerable to attack by diurnal avian predators, reddish and yellowish pelage patterns may be important for concealment. Because it is nocturnal, P. volans may not need this reddish and yellowish pelage. Sciurus vulgaris also had a remarkably counter-shaded body, indicating that its body may reduce predation risk from daytime visual predators. Differences in seasonal pelage color change of these two arboreal squirrels may be caused by their different ... |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Mitsuzuka, Wakana Kato, M Oshida, Tatsuo 押田, 龍夫 |
author_facet |
Mitsuzuka, Wakana Kato, M Oshida, Tatsuo 押田, 龍夫 |
author_sort |
Mitsuzuka, Wakana |
title |
Seasonal pelage color change of two sympatric arboreal squirrel species in the subarctic region |
title_short |
Seasonal pelage color change of two sympatric arboreal squirrel species in the subarctic region |
title_full |
Seasonal pelage color change of two sympatric arboreal squirrel species in the subarctic region |
title_fullStr |
Seasonal pelage color change of two sympatric arboreal squirrel species in the subarctic region |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seasonal pelage color change of two sympatric arboreal squirrel species in the subarctic region |
title_sort |
seasonal pelage color change of two sympatric arboreal squirrel species in the subarctic region |
publisher |
Taylor and Francis |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://obihiro.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/4600/files/24750263.2019.pdf |
genre |
Sakhalin Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Sakhalin Subarctic |
op_relation |
doi:10.1080/24750263.2019.1682694 European Zoological Journal 1 86 443 451 24750263 https://obihiro.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/4600/files/24750263.2019.pdf |
op_rights |
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2019.1682694 |
container_title |
The European Zoological Journal |
container_volume |
86 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
443 |
op_container_end_page |
451 |
_version_ |
1776203424126205952 |