Key word: Rodentia, Ellobius lutescens, ecology, distribution, Turkey.

Türkiye Ellobius lutescens Thomas,1897 (Mammalia:Rodentia) Türü üzerine Gözlemler

Özet: Türkiye’de Ellobius cinsinin yalnız Ellobius lutescens türü yaşar. Bunlar yer altı yaşamına uyum sağlamışlardır. Türkiye’deki bu türün ekolojik özellikleri, populasyon yapısı ve ayrıntılı dağılışı hakkında bilgi yoktur. 12 farklı lokalitede toplanan 42 örneğin arazi ve laboratuvar gözlemlerinden bilgiler elde edildi. Turkiyedeki dağılım sınırları; (1). Kuzeyde Muradiye’nin 8 km kuzeyi, (2). Güneyde Çatak’ın 32 km kuzeyi, (3). Batı’da Uysal’ın 5-6 km doğusu ve güneydoğuda Yüksekova’dır. Tünel sistemleri karmaşık olup, belirgin bir galeri sistemi yoktur. Tünellerin dikey ve yatay çapı sırasıyla 5-8 cm ve 6-9 cm’dir. Türün bireyleri aile şeklinde yaşar. Yaşam alanları yaklaşık 12 m X 9m büyüklüğündedir ancak besin bolluğuna bağlı olarak değişir. Her türlü bitkisel besinlerle beslenirler. Bir birey günde ortalama 79.66 gr besin tüketir. Yılda enaz iki defa, 2-4 yavru doğururlar. Türkiye’de bu türün nesli tehlike altında değildir.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Rodentia, Ellobius lutescens, ekoloji, dağılış, Türkiye

    Introduction

The Mole Voles, genus Ellobius, are  Palearctic region animals which distributed in far east Anatolia to Mongolia (1-8). Gromov and Baranova (9) expressed that the genus Ellobius has been occured since mid-Pleistocene. Pleistocene remaints of Ellobius spp. are found from Konya-Akşehir-Dursunlu in Turkey (10).

E.fuscocapillus, E.lutescens, E.talpinus, E.tancrei and E.alaicus species have been living at present time (11). These species show allopatric distribution.

E.fuscocapillus is distributed in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan; E.talpinus is in Ukraina, Kazakhistan, Turkmenia, Ozbekhistan and Afghanistan; E.tancrei is in Kırgızistan, Tacikistan and Mongolia; E.alaicus is in Kırgızistan (this species is endemic for Kırgızistan) and E.lutescens is distributed in Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Anatolia (1-8, 11). Ellobius lutescens reaches the western limit of its distribution area from Van-Hakkari province in East Anatolia (12).

The Mole Vole Ellobius lutescens was first described by Thomas in 1897, based on the six specimens collected from Van (13) (Fig.1). The taxonomical, karyological, morphological and some biological peculiarities were studied by Coşkun (12, 14 and 15) and Coşkun & Ulutürk (16).

Figure 1. Ellobius lutescens

Although the presence of this species is known in Eastern Anatolia, its exact distribution area and  ecological peculiarities have not yet been documanted in detail. The aim of this study is therefore to determine the distribution boundaries and  some ecological peculiarities, such as reproduction, feeding and population structure etc. of the species  Ellobius lutescens in Turkey. The present account offers information based primarily on the field observations carried out during 1999-2001.

 Material and Method

            This study conducted on 42 specimens (18 females, 24 males) which were collected from the 12 different localities  by digging the burrow systems. Collecting localities of the specimens were given in figure 2. The animals were sexed. Some ecological peculiarities were observed under field studies and laboratory conditions without any special conditions. Specimens are deposited at the Biology Department, Science and Art Faculty, University of Dicle (Diyarbakır).

    Figure 2. Distribution region of Ellobius lutescens in Turkey. 1. Van-Ovapınar ( 50 km north of Van , Coşkun 1997’s material) 6; 2. Hakkari-Yüksekova-Suüstü village Büyükçiftlik Bridge province, 2; 3. Hakkari-Yüksekova-Hanemusa village 1; 4. Van-Başkale 1; 5. 1 km south of Van-Gürpınar-Köprüler village, 5; 6. Van-Gevaş-Cafer’s place, 6; 7. 2 km east of Van-Gevaş-Güzelkonak village, 4; 8. Van-Saray 4; 9. 3 km south of Van-Muradiye-Balıklı village, 6; 10. 2 km south of Van-Muradiye-Gönderme village, 4; 11. 3 km west of Van-Çatak-Köklü village, 1; 12. 8 km north of Van-Çatak-Kayaboğaz village, 2 (numbers after the localities are sample size). (Erçek  is the type locality)

    Result and Discussion

            These species, living in family groups, were completely adapted to the underground life and feeding on the roots, tubers, bulbs and risoms of the plants. This species is distrubuted in only Van and Hakkari province in Turkey. By the results of our studies the detailed distribution region as follows;

            Yüksekova is the  south border of this species (Fig. 2). As we have not got facility for the field studies in Şemdinli, south part of Yüksekova, we did not know that this species is being there or not. So the south border is assigned to Yüksekova.

            We did not meet this species in Şırnak, Uludere, Çukurca and Hakkari region. In the southwest, the area from the junction of Van-Çatak, to the villages of Kızıltaş and Kayaboğaz (32 km to Çatak) is occupied by this species; the mountainous area begin from the villages of Yenimahalle and Elmacı the north of Çatak and there is not any mounds of Ellobius in this region. So the southwest border of the species is expired in the north of Kayaboğaz village (Fig.3A)

Figure 3. The detailed distribution borders of E.lutescens in Turkey. A. southwest, B. west, C. north borders.

Although the area from Kuskunkıran Aisle, between Tatvan and Gevaş, to the village of Yoldöndü exist of Talpa (Mole) and Spalax (Mole Rat) populations parapatrically , there is no occupied area by the species of Ellobius. There is a gap between Yoldöndü and Uysal villages. In the Güzelkonak village, 5-6 km east of Uysal, the mounds of Mole Voles are abundant, especially in the beet fields (Fig. 3.B).

            The northernmost border of E.lutescens begins at just the south of Gönderme village which located between Muradiye and Çaldıran. There are a lot of mounds of these animals in the 8 km north of Muradiye. Then, Spalax mounds begin at the village of Ayrancı, located in 5 km to Çaldıran. Both of them are absent between the villages of Gönderme and Ayrancı (Fig. 3.C).

            The specimens were collected from Van-Saray, the most east of Turkey and observed mounds in Albayrak. According to Ognev (1) this species is distributed in Iran, Azerbaijan and Armenia. So, the east border of this species is out of Turkish border.

    The individuals of this species are distributed in all soil types with the exception of moving sand. The mole voles prepare its underground tunnels by scratching the soil with its incisors and pushing the loosened soil behind its body with its fore and hind limbs. Then it turns and transports the excavated soil with its head and breast. So that the moundcrowd occured on the surface (Fig. 4).

Figure 4. The habitat and Mounds of E.lutescens.

These mounds would be obscured with the those of Talpa and Spalax. There would be 22-35 mounds in the 5 m x 3.6 m dimensions area (Fig.4). The top diameter of these mounds are 8-21 cm, the base diameter is in 24-50 cm, and height is 9-14 cm. The distance between the mounds would be changed in 4-70 cm (Fig 5.A). The diameter of tunnels is almost constant. The width of tunnels is a little wide from the diameter of the occupant animal. The vertical and horizontal diameters of tunnels are 5-8, and  6-9 cm, respectively (Fig. 5.A).

Figure 5.  A.The mounds of E.lutescens a. top diameter,  b. base diameter,  c. height  d. the distance between the mounds  e. vertical and f. horizontal diameters of the tunnels. B. The galery system of E.lutescens

            The base depth of the tunnels from the surface is 16-48 cm (average 27+-5.8 cm). In the urgent situations the tunnels, that the animal sheltered, alighted to the 54-90 cm depth from the surface with an angle of 45^o. The depth of the tunnels is more related with the distance of the plant roots. The main tunnel system is connected with the feeding tunnels. This species made its nest close to the surface (Fig. 5.B) and the nest has connections with a lot of tunnels. There are soft materials ( nylon, pices of cloth, dry grass etc.) and foods in the nest. The foods stored in the expanded rooms near the nest and there is not any other food storage room. Whereas the galery systems of each family show differences related to the soil structure and food amount, it is not possible to determine a typical galery system.

The size of the habitat of each family is about 12 m x 9 m. Its size changes with the amount of  the food. 36 family systems were counted in the area which has 150 m x 80 m (app. 12 Sq. m) dimensions. It is observed that there were 8 family systems in 1000 m² area. Each burrow system contains one male, one female and at least one pup. The population in this area has about 24 individuals. The number of the pups is generally 1-2, but sometimes it would be more. In this case it is estimated that there would be 24.000 individuals in one km² area. The research area is more mountanious and this species live in the bottom of the mountains, because of this the density of the population decrease.

            We conceived that there is not any destruction risk of this species in the distribution region and so it does not need any precaution in this phase.

            The specimens, kept in the laboratory more than one year did not hibernate or estivate. When the temperature of the laboratory increases, the animals lie on back and try to cool by opening their fore and hind limbs laterally. In the cold conditions they guard themselves in the nest by inseperable.

            When another couple put in the cage, these families live together in peace. The pups  are guarded by the all individuals in the cage.

Figure 6. The stored food removed from burrow (A), and the clover root rended  (B) by E.lutescens.

Mole Voles feed primarily on large subterranean edible parts of plants (i.e. corns, bulbs, tubers, rosettes) which they collect while burrowing through the ground and hoard in nest-mound stores. Their food is composed of potatoes, carrots, beet, clover roots and onions. About 298 gr stored food removed from a burrow that include one pup, one male and one female (Fig. 6.A). These animals do not drink free water, they obtain it from food.

This species cut the roots of the plants during the scratching the tunnels in the agriculture areas. Especially in the clover fields they rended clover roots in the 10-12 cm depth from the surface (Fig. 6.B).

            It is observed that E.lutescens, keeping in the cages consume 79.66 ± 2.89 (19-166) gr food in a day. There is a linear relationship between the weight of the animal and the consumed food amount (r=0.63). When the weight of the animal increases, the consumption amount of the food is also increase (Fig. 7.A). 

                                                                                                          A                                                                                B

Figure 7. The relation between the animal weight and consumed food amount (A) and the daily food consumption (B) of E.lutescens.

            During the observation the animals primarily prefer carrots then potato, beet, radish and onion, respectively (Fig. 7.B). The consumption of the carrot is more than the consumption of the potato when ordered together. The females consume more food than  males.

            The amount of the food consumption is 0.57-0.74-1.08 gr. per gram of the animal’s weight. The animals, keeping together in the cages, consume  less food than the animals keeping alone. As the single animal consumes  0.91 gr food per gram of the weight, the couples consume 0.68 gr. The animals eat  all kind of plants to given them (Table 1).

Table 1. The amount of the daily food consumption of E.lutescens (N=observation number, Range= minimum and maximum meanings, X= average, SE= standart error).

            Walker (3) expressed that E.lutescens can  bear 1-7  pups (usually 3-5) twice in a year. During field studies, it is observed that the pups were grown up in May, as a result, they must have born in early May or late-April. A pregnant female caught in October, ıt  shows that they can also give birth in Autumn. In this case it could be thought that this species gives birth twice in a year. We observed 5 individuals in a burrow. So, at least 3 pups are live in this  burrow system.

            We have got only one pup in March from a couple of E.lutescens keeping in the cage more than one year. But observing 4 embrios in uterus showed that this species beared 4 pups (Fig. 8).

Figure 8. The uterus of E.lutescens with embrios.  1-4 : embrios, u : uterus

Finding fossil remains from Konya-Akşehir-Dursunlu shows that the genus Ellobius distributed  a wide area especially in Iranid zone during the geological periods; both the geological changes and the distribution of the Spalax species draged them to the east, so nowadays they can only live in Van-Hakkari province.

There is no relations between the distribution of Ellobius and the temprature, rainfall, humidity and also the vegetation of the region. Because they do not live in the same ecological areas. But this is related with the geological structure of the region. The distribution area located into the Iranid zone. Furthermore the other species, especially Spalax, is restricted the distribution of Ellobius. It is observed that there is 3-8 km a gap between these species.

There is only one species (E.lutescens Thomas, 1897) of the genus Ellobius exist in Turkey. E.lutescens and E.fuscocapillus are different species by their morphological and karyological peculiarities, so the distribution conception of E. fuscocapillus in Turkey is wrong. This species is distributed in Iran and the other regions. The individuals of E.lutescens live as a family society, not in groups. They bear 1-3 pups twice in a year in the months of March-April and October-November. There is not any destruction risk of this species in the distribution region, so it does not need precaution in this phase.

Acknowledgements: This study was supported by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK).

References

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2.                  Ellerman, J.R., and Morisson-Scott., T.C.S., Checklist of Palearctic and Indian Mammals, 1758 to 1946. Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist., Londonpp: 810, 1951.

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5.                  Hassinger, J.D., A Survey of the Mammals of Afghanistan. Resulting from the 1965 street expedition (Excluding Bats). Fieldiana: Zoology, Vol. 60, 63-68, 1973.

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8.                  Corbet, G.B., and J.E.Hill., A World List of Mammalian Species. 3^th ed. Nat. Hist. Mus. Pub.,Oxford, pp: 243, 1991.

9.                  Gromov, I., and Baranova, G.I., Catalogue of Mammals in USSR. Nauka, Leningrad, pp: 149-152, 1981.

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11.              Pantalayev, P.A., The Rodents of the Palaearctic. Composition and areas. Russian Acad. of  Sci. A.N. Severtzov Inst. of Ecology and Evolution, Moscow, pp: 116, 1998.

12.              Coşkun, Y.,Some Peculiarities of the Species Ellobius lutescens from Turkey. XVIII ^th International Congress of Zoology, (Abstracts). Athens, Greece, p:179. , 2000.

13.              Thomas, O., On two new Rodents from Van, Kurdistan. Ann. Mag. Nat.Hist., Seri 6, Vol.20, 308-310, 1897.

14.              Coşkun, Y., Morphological and Karyological Peculiarities of the species Ellobius lutescens Thomas, 1897 (Rodentia: Cricetidae) in Turkey. Tr. J. of Zoology, 21, 349-354, 1997.

15.              Coşkun, Y., On distribution, morphology and biology of the Mole Vole, Ellobius lutescens Thomas, 1897 (Mammalia: Rodentia) in eastern Turkey. Zoology in the Middle East, 23: 5-12, 2001.

16.              Coşkun, Y. ve Ulutürk, S., Türkiye Ellobius (Rodentia: Mammalia) Cinsinin Taksonomisi, Dağılışı ve Karyolojisi. TÜBİTAK-TBAG 1751 No’lu Proje, pp: 40, 2001

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