Chinese blind muck

Chinese blind muck
	Chinese muck, depictions from Henri Milne Edwards 1868
Systematics
Superfamily :	Mice-like (Muroidea)
Family :	Spalacidae
Subfamily :	Blind mole rat (Myospalacinae)
Tribe :	Myospalacini
Genre :	Eospalax
Type :	Chinese blind muck
Scientific name
	Eospalax fontanierii
	( Milne-Edwards , 1867)

The Chinese blind mole rat ( Eospalax fontanierii ) is a comparatively large rodent species within the blind mole rat (Myospalacinae). It is endemic to the central and northeastern People's Republic of China .

features

The Chinese blind muck reaches a head-torso length of 15.5 to 24.5 centimeters with a weight of around 150 to 620 grams. The tail is very short at 4.0 to 6.2 centimeters in length . The rear foot length is 25 to 38 millimeters. The fur on the back is dark rust-brown, the gray-black base of the short hair is usually visible. The ventral side is grayish black with reddish hair tips. The head has a conspicuous and large white patch on the forehead. The tail is almost hairless.

The skull has a total length of 41 to 49 millimeters, it is flat and broad. The front end of the nasal bones is clearly notched. The bony eye ring is protruding, a crest is clearly pronounced. The genome consists of a diploid chromosome set of 2n = 60 chromosomes.

distribution

The Chinese blind mole rat is endemic to the People's Republic of China . The distribution area covers large parts of central and northeastern China in the provinces of Gansu , Qinghai , Ningxia , Shaanxi , Sichuan , Hubei , Anhui , Shanxi , Hebei , Henan and Shandong and, according to the IUCN, also in Inner Mongolia and Beijing .

Way of life

The Chinese blind mole rat lives in steppe meadows, mountain meadows and bushes as well as in agricultural areas and ruderal areas . The animals feed on herbivores mainly on roots and underground parts of the plant stem. They live underground in the ground and build large-scale structures, loosening and mixing the soil through their digging and digging activities, thus increasing the heterogeneity of the soils and improving their water retention capacity, which reduces the erosion of dry steppe soils. The structures reach lengths of more than 100 meters and are characterized by mounds of loose earth in the area of the entrances. The animals create large storage chambers in their burrows, which can usually contain 2.4 to 3.8 kilograms of plant material. In extreme cases, up to 30 kilograms can be stored in such a chamber. The tunnels dug for foraging are located at a depth of 8 to 13 centimeters after the surface, connecting tunnels usually reach about half a meter below the surface and the deepest known tunnels are 1.8 to 2.4 meters deep.

The reproductive phase begins in early spring and the females give birth to one to three litters with two to seven young each year. The species is one of the most important prey animals for numerous predators in the steppe areas.

Systematics

The Chinese blind mole rat is classified as an independent species within the blind mole rat in the genus Eospalax , which consists of three species. The first scientific description comes from Alphonse Milne-Edwards from the year 1867, who described the species as Siphneus fontanierii using an individual from Gansu (formerly "Kansu"). The species was named after Henri Victor Fontanier , a French diplomat and honorary consul in China, who was also active as a collector for the Natural History Museum in Paris and from whom the specimen described came from.

Eospalax fontanierii baileyi on a metal cage

Mostly all the species were Eospalax in the genre Myopalax classified.

Within the species, three subspecies are distinguished with the nominate form :

Eospalax fontanierii fontanierii (Milne-Edwards, 1867): nominate form; the subspecies is common in Shanxi, Hebei, Henan and Shandong.
Eospalax fontanierii baileyi ( Thomas , 1911): the subspecies is common in Shanxi, Gansu and Qinghai.
Eospalax fontanierii cansus (Lyon, 1907): the subspecies is common in Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hubei and Anhui.

Both Eospalax f. baileyi as well as Eospalax f. cansus were sometimes viewed as separate species.

Status, threat and protection

The Chinese blind garbage is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) as not endangered (least concern). This is justified by the large distribution area and the frequent occurrence of the species. There are no potential risks to the existence of the species. In the 1990s, the species was controlled as a pest in agricultural areas in Qinghai, which led to significant local declines. The original population density of 5 to 70 animals per hectare at the end of the 1980s was reduced by more than 30% as part of the measures.

supporting documents

^ Henri Milne Edwards : Recherches pour servir à l'histoire naturelle des mammifères: comprenant des considérations sur la classification de ces animaux. G. Masson, Paris 1868-1874; Plate 7. doi : 10.5962 / bhl.title.59889 .

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Andrew T. Smith: Chinese Zokor. In: Andrew T. Smith , Yan Xie: A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 2008, ISBN 978-0-691-09984-2 , p. 210.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Eospalax fontanierii in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017.3. Listed by: AT Smith, CH Johnston, 2008. Retrieved December 21, 2017.
↑ ^a ^b Eospalax fontanierii . In: Don E. Wilson , DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. 2 volumes. 3. Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
↑ Bo Beolens, Michael Grayson, Michael Watkins: The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009; P. 138; ISBN 978-0-8018-9304-9 .
^ Alphonse Milne-Edwards : Observations sur quelques mammifères du nord de la Chine. Annales des sciences naturelles. Zoologie et biologie animale, 7 (5); P. 376. ( full text )

literature

Andrew T. Smith: Chinese Zokor. In: Andrew T. Smith , Yan Xie: A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 2008, ISBN 978-0-691-09984-2 , p. 210.

Web links

Commons : Eospalax fontanierii - collection of images, videos and audio files

Eospalax fontanierii inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017.3. Listed by: AT Smith, CH Johnston, 2008. Retrieved December 21, 2017.

[Milne_Edwards_1868-1] Henri Milne Edwards : Recherches pour servir à l'histoire naturelle des mammifères: comprenant des considérations sur la classification de ces animaux. G. Masson, Paris 1868-1874; Plate 7. doi : 10.5962 / bhl.title.59889 .

[Smith_&_Yan_Xie_2009-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Andrew T. Smith: Chinese Zokor. In: Andrew T. Smith , Yan Xie: A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 2008, ISBN 978-0-691-09984-2 , p. 210.