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Abstract
Naderi G., Hemami M.R., Mohammadi S., Karami M., Kaboli M., Khalatbari M.: The habitat use-age of the Iranian jerboa (Allactaga firouzi Womochel 1978). Ekológia (Bratislava), Vol. 29, No. 4, p. 460-463, 2010.
In this study, we used the quadrate method to investigate microhabitat utilization by Iranian Jerboa in the south of Isfahan province, Iran. To investigate microhabitat selection in activity sites (outside the burrows) we compared habitat characteristics in 75 square plots in activity sites and the same number of plots in 500 meters away from activity plots in random directs as paired plots. We detected significant differences among used microhabitat variables by the species and available microhabitat characteristics as determined by Wilcoxon (Z = 7.051; P < 0.001) and Paired T test (t = 15.7 ; df = 74 P < 0.001). The species was associated with microhabitat characteristics whose values differed markedly from the overall available habitat.
Key words: Allactaga firouzi, habitat use, activity sites, Iran
Introduction
The Iranian Jerboa is one of the rarest rodent species in the world, since it had been reported exclusively from a single type locality (Fig. 1) all over the world (Womochel, 1978). Because of its restricted geographical distribution and habitat degradation, it had been classified as Critically Endangered in the IUCN Red List. Since there is a paucity of published information regarding the current status and basic ecology of the Iranian jerboa, its conservation status was changed to the "Data Deficient" category in late 2008 (IUCN, 2009). There are many factors that affect small mammal's vital rates and natural selection should favor those that time their activities in a manner that maximize lifetime, foraging and reproductive success. Many investigators have inferred from their data that microhabitat features, such as vegetation structure, cover and height, relative humidity and soil properties are important community variables affecting desert rodent abundance (M'Closkey, Fieldwick, 1975). Studies on patterns of habitat use by mammals are important for understanding the mechanisms involved in their distribution and abundance. For small mammals, patterns of habitat selection reflect a variation in the availability of resources in space and time scales (Stapp, 1997). These animals...