Abstract:
We investigated changes in burrow architecture and fractal dimension across
seasons and between the sexes in the solitary East African root rat Tachyoryctes
splendens over an entire calendar year. The basic burrow system comprised a main
tunnel reticulating into foraging tunnels, a nest consisting of food store chamber,
latrine and sleeping area, and a bolt hole. Main tunnel length was strongly affected
by sex, and contrary to expectations, it was longer for females than for males
(during both the dry and the wet seasons). The number and the length of foraging
tunnels were affected by both sex and season, with females’ burrows having more
foraging tunnels than males in both the dry and the wet seasons. Females also had
burrows with higher fractal dimension than males, while fractal dimension
increased with burrow length for both sexes. We suggest that unlike the solitary
bathyergid mole-rats, male T. splendens do not construct larger burrows than
females in the search for mates, but rather females have larger burrows with more
foraging tunnels resulting from the increased need for provisioning of their young.
