A tale of two jirds : the locomotory activity patterns of the King jird (Meriones rex) and Lybian jird (Meriones lybicus) from Saudi Arabia
| dc.contributor.author | Alagaili, Abdulaziz N. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Mohammed, Osama B. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Bennett, Nigel Charles | |
| dc.contributor.author | Oosthuizen, Maria Kathleen | |
| dc.contributor.email | moosthuizen@zoology.up.ac.za | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2013-05-02T08:30:44Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2013-05-02T08:30:44Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2013-01 | |
| dc.description.abstract | The animal-environment interaction is complex, and the ability to temporally organise locomotor activity provides adaptive and survival advantages. We investigated daily and circadian locomotor activity patterns of two jird species from Arabia occurring in dramatically different environments to determine the environmental effect on activity. The King jird occurs in mountainous regions of Azir where climatic conditions are cool and wet, while the Libyan jird inhabits low-lying hot sandy deserts where temperatures exceed 45ºC during summer. Six King jirds and nine Libyan jirds were subjected to a 12L:12D light cycle, a period of constant darkness (DD) and an inversed 12D:12L light cycle. Five of six King jirds and all Libyan jirds showed entrainment of their activity to the light cycles, most animals exhibited nocturnal activity. All entraining jirds showed circadian rhythmicity, with the periods of the rhythms very close to 24 hours. Entraining jirds inversed their activity patterns when the light cycle was inversed. The two jird species displayed comparable amounts of nocturnal activity in all light cycles presented. The King jird showed larger intraspecific variability than the Libyan jird, which may reflect more plasticity in its circadian clock, allowing it to adapt quicker to environmental changes. | en |
| dc.description.librarian | hb2013 | en |
| dc.description.librarian | ab2013 | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | The Deanship of Scientific Research at the King Saud University for funding the work through the research group project No. RGP_VPP_020. | en |
| dc.description.uri | www.elsevier.com/locate/jaridenv | en |
| dc.identifier.citation | Alagaili, AN, Mohammed, OB, Bennett, NC & Oosthuizen, MK 2013, 'A tale of two jirds : the locomotory activity patterns of the King jird (Meriones rex) and Lybian jird (Meriones lybicus) from Saudi Arabia', Journal of Arid Environments, vol. 88, no. 1, pp. 102-122. | en |
| dc.identifier.issn | 0140-1963 (print) | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1095-922X (online) | |
| dc.identifier.other | 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2012.09.005 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/21430 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | Elsevier | en |
| dc.rights | © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Notice : this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Arid Environments.Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Arid Environments, vol.88, issue 1, 2013. DOI : 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2012.09.005 | en |
| dc.subject | Circadian rhythm | en |
| dc.subject | King jird | en |
| dc.subject | Light-dark cycle | en |
| dc.subject | Locomotor activity | en |
| dc.subject | Libyan jird | en |
| dc.subject | Meriones | en |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Jirds -- Saudi Arabia | en |
| dc.title | A tale of two jirds : the locomotory activity patterns of the King jird (Meriones rex) and Lybian jird (Meriones lybicus) from Saudi Arabia | en |
| dc.type | Postprint Article | en |