Author(s): Csorba, A.
Title: Influence of body weight on hibernation of the Common Dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius)
Year: 2003
Volume: 49
Pages: 39-44.
Abstract: The hibernation of 18 wild-caught dormice was studied in the laboratory under constant condition. The animals were supervised and fed continuously during the experiments. For hibernation they were transferred to a refrigerator with controlled temperature of 5±2oC. Mortality was 44% during the hibernation, in contrast to 64–74% in nature. Weight loss tended to be linear and a relationship was found between the initial weight and the slope of the regression line. It is suggested that there is a critical mass relating to mortality in the animals that died. The mean initial body weight of surviving dormice was 18.19±3.50 g and of those that perished it was 15.26±3.16 g. This difference is statistically not significant but since it is close to the conventional 5% individual differences have to be calculated within the two groups, e.g. the body size in comparison with body mass, differences in metabolism, etc. Analysing the fine structure of a weight loss graph, hibernation periods could be detected. These seemed to last 4–26 days, the mean was 11 days. The mean body weight loss was 31.3±5.4%.
Keywords: hibernation, weight loss, Muscardinus avellanarius
Journal: Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Journal abbreviation:
ISSN: 1217-8837
Publisher: Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest
Editor(s): Matskási, I., Peregovits, L., Morris, P. A. & Bakonyi, G.
