Abstract
To evaluate how the course of irregular winter hibernation is recorded in the incisor teeth of Allocricetulus hamsters, an analysis was performed of the incisor surface in seven A. curtatus and two A. eversmanni hamsters and stained section of the incisors in one A. curtatus hamster. The animals were kept in cages at natural temperature and photoperiod. Five hamsters were implanted with a temperature data logger, and another five received tetracycline injections (5–20 days before death). In addition, the incisor surface was examined in eight A. curtatus and eight A. eversmanni hamsters trapped in the field. In hibernating hamsters, the duration of alternating periods of hypothermia (torpor bouts) and normothermia (arousals) and their ratio varied irregularly and randomly within and between individuals. Increments on the incisor surface were of two types: wide and poorly defined or narrow and distinct. The increments in hamsters trapped in the field were slightly more distinct than in experimental captive animals, and those in two hamsters that failed to hibernate were similarly wide and indistinct. In hibernating hamsters, wide increments proved to correspond to long periods of normothermia, while narrow increments were formed when torpor bouts alternated with short arousals. More distinct narrow increments formed when torpor bouts followed by short (no more than 1.5-days) arousals occurred in a series rather than singly. Although the number of narrow increments was approximately similar to that of short arousals, in was impossible to localize the record of each particular hypo/normothermia episode on the incisor surface. Dentin layers in stained preparations had no definite pattern and corresponded to these episodes no better than the increments on the incisor surface. In general, the narrow and distinct increments in a given Allocricetulus hamster is evidence that the animal did hibernate, and the number of such increments indicates the approximate minimum number of torpor bouts followed by arousals. The record of winter hibernation on the incisors of Allocricetulus hamsters has a pattern similar to that in Mesocricetus brandti (Batavia et al., 2013) but significantly differs from the pattern described in M. raddei (Klevezal et al., 2012).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anufriev, A.N., Solomonova, T.N., Turpanov, A.A., and Solomonov, N.G., Ecological mechanisms of the formation of biological rhythms in hibernators of the family Sciuridae in northeastern Siberia, Russ. J. Ecol., 2005, vol. 36, no. 5, pp. 343–348.
Batavia, M., Nguyen, G., and Zucker, I., The effects of day length, hibernation, and ambient temperature on incisor dentin in the Turkish hamster (Mesocricetus brandti), J. Comp. Physiol. B, 2013, vol. 183, pp. 557–566.
Feoktistova, N.Yu., Naidenko, S.V., Surov, A.V., and Menchinskii, K.M., Ecological and physiological characteristics of seasonal biology of the Mongolian hamster, Allocricetulus curtatus Allan 1940 (Cricetinae, Rodentia), Russ. J. Ecol., 2013, vol. no. 1, pp. 56–59.
Goodwin, H.T. and Ryckman, E.M., Lower incisors of prairie dogs (Cynomys) as biorecorders of hibernation and season of death, J. Mammal., 2006, vol. 87, no. 5, pp. 1002–1012.
Goodwin, H.T., Michener, G.R., Gonzalez, D., and Rinaldi, C.E., Hibernation is recorded in lower incisors of recent and fossil ground squirrels (Spermophilus), J. Mammal., 2005, vol. 86, no. 2, pp. 323–332.
Hansson, L.I., Daily growth in length in diaphysis measured by oxytetracycline in rabbit normally and after medullary plugging, Acta Orthoped. Scand., 1967, Suppl. 101, pp. 1–199.
Klevezal, G.A., Registriruyushchie struktury mlekopitayushchikh v zoologicheskikh issledovaniyakh (Recording Structures of Mammals in Zoological Research), Moscow: Nauka, 1988.
Klevezal, G.A. and Anufriev, A.I., On the growth of incisors in ground squirrels (Spermophilus) during hibernation, Biology Bulletin, 2013a, vol. 40, no. 9, pp. 760–767.
Klevezal, G.A. and Anufriev, A.I., Variation in increments and “hibernation zone” on the incisor surface in marmots (Marmota), Zool. Zh., 2013b, vol. 92, no. 11, pp. 1333–1348 (Biology Bulletin, 2014, vol. 41, no. 7, pp. 601–615.).
Klevezal, G.A. and Lobkov, V.A., Daily increments and the “hibernation zone” on the surface of incisors in ground squirrels of the genus Spermophilus, Zool. Zh., 2008, vol. 87, no. 12, pp. 495–1503.
Klevezal, G.A. and Potapova, E.G, Disproportionate eruption of maxillary and mandibular incisors in the long-tailed ground squirrel, Russ. J. Dev. Biol., 2010, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 168–175.
Klevezal, G.A. and Shchepotkin, D.V., Incisor growth rate in rodents and the record of the entire annual cycle in the incisors of Marmota baibacina centralis, Biology Bulletin, 2012, vol. 39, no. 8, pp. 684–691.
Klevezal, G.A., Ushakova, M.V., Chunkov, M.M., Feoktistova, N.Yu., and Surov, A.V., A record of hibernation on the surface of incisor teeth in the hamster Mesocricetus raddei (Nehring, 1894), Biology Bulletin, 2012, vol. 39, no. 9, pp. 752–758.
Petrovskii, D.V., Novikov, E.A., and Moshkin, M.P., Dynamics of body temperature in the northern mole vole, Ellobius talpinus (Rodentia, Cricetidae), in the winter period, Zool. Zh., 2008, vol. 87, no. 12, pp. 1504–1508.
Rinaldi, C., A record of hibernation in the incisor teeth of recent and fossil marmots (Marmota flaviventris), Proc. 11th Int. Symp. on Dental Morphology, Oulu, Finland: Oulu Univ. Press, 1999, pp. 112–119.
Trunova, Yu.E., Hibernation marks in the incisors of fossil rodents, Dokl. Biol. Sci., 2001, vol. 377, 163–165.
Trunova, Yu.E. and Klevezal, G.A., Interspecific variation in the records of winter hibernation in the incisor dentin of rodents, Russian Journal of Zoology, 1999, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 637–646.
Ushakova, M.V., Feoktistova, N.Yu., Petrovskii, D.V., Gureeva, A.V., Naidenko, S.V., and Surov, A.V., Specific Features of Winter Hibernation in the Eversmann’s Hamster (Allocricetulus eversmanni Brandt, 1859) from the Saratov Transvolga Region, Povolzh. Ekol. Zh., 2010, no. 4, pp. 415–422.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Additional information
Original Russian Text © G.A. Klevezal, N.Yu. Feoktistova, D.V. Shchepotkin, A.V. Surov, 2015, published in Zoologicheskii Zhurnal, 2015, Vol. 94, No. 2, pp. 259–272.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Klevezal, G.A., Feoktistova, N.Y., Shchepotkin, D.V. et al. Specific features of the record of hibernation on the incisor surface in Allocricetulus hamsters. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 42, 742–754 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S106235901508004X
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S106235901508004X