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Variations of Some Physiological and Biochemical Indices in the Population of Red-Backed Vole (Clethrionomys rutilus)

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Abstract

We studied the changes in the population density of the red-backed vole (Clethrionomys rutilus Pall.) on the northern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk (60° N) during three population cycles (1980–1990). A total of 3111 animals were studied, including 1006 alive voles. For evaluation of the population stress and food deficit, a complex of biochemical (blood level of glucose and liver levels of glycogen and lipids) and physiological (blood content of leucocytes, spleen weight, etc.) indices was used. At a high population density, the influence of stress continues during the reproductive period, after its termination, and, supposedly, until the beginning of a new reproductive period, while at a low population density, the consequences of stress were expressed only in the second half of the reproductive period. The signs of starvation were recorded only in some semiadult voles in a high density population. It has been confirmed that stress acts as a mechanism involved in regulation of the population density of small rodents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biological Problems of the North, ul. Portovaya 18, Magadan, 685000, Russia

    F. B. Chernyavskii, A. N. Lazutkin & A. F. Mosin

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  1. F. B. Chernyavskii
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  2. A. N. Lazutkin
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  3. A. F. Mosin
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Chernyavskii, F.B., Lazutkin, A.N. & Mosin, A.F. Variations of Some Physiological and Biochemical Indices in the Population of Red-Backed Vole (Clethrionomys rutilus). Biology Bulletin 30, 291–298 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023820131706

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