Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.0
4.2
Journals
Biology
Special Issues
Ecology and Conservation of Squirrels
share announcement

Ecology and Conservation of Squirrels

A special issue of Biology (ISSN 2079-7737). This special issue belongs to the section "Zoology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 October 2023) | Viewed by 3439

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. John L. Koprowski

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Wildlife Conservation & Management, School of Natural Resources & the Environment (SNRE), University of Arizona, 325 Biological Sciences East, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Interests: wildlife conservation; endangered species; mammalogy; forest management; squirrel ecology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Squirrels constitute the members of the family Sciuridae, of the order Rodentia, with 285 species, constituted within 58 genera, squirrels are one of the most diverse mammals. They range from 10 g for tropical pygmy squirrels to 7.5 kg for marmots. Overall squirrels can be categorised into three groups, viz., tree squirrels, flying squirrels, and ground squirrels, which differ distinctly from each other in ecology and morphology. They live in almost every habitat, from tropical rainforests to semiarid deserts, avoiding only the high polar regions and the driest of deserts. They are distributed in every continent except Antarctica. The greatest diversity of squirrels is in tropical ecosystems of Southeast Asia, followed by Africa.

Squirrels are an important part of many ecosystems around the world. They play a vital role in seed dispersal, pollination, and playing a part in prey-predator interactions. Squirrels have adapted to living in urban areas as well as in forests, making them an important part of urban ecology. They have long been the subject of scientific research. From their behaviour and physiology to their diet and habitat, researchers have been studying these animals for decades. In recent years, the use of technology has allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of squirrels and their environment.

Against this background, the goal of this Research Topic is to compile, from a wide range of contexts and geographies, an interdisciplinary system of knowledge conducive to the understanding the regional and global conservation priorities for this family, including, but not limited to, knowledge related to the diversity, distribution, ecology, evolution and adaptation strategies employed by various members of this ubiquitous family.

The goal of the special edition is to offer a publishing venue for those wishing to publish on Sciuridae and make their work easily accessible to a wide readership.

We welcome contributions in various article types, including original research, reviews, mini-reviews, methods, hypothesis and theory, perspectives, data reports, and opinion articles.

Prof. Dr. John L. Koprowski
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biology is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • squirrels
  • sciuridae
  • squirrels ecology
  • squirrels adaptation
  • squirrels behaviour
  • squirrels conservation

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

12 pages, 2246 KiB  
Article
Favorite Parts of a Single Leaf for Giant Flying Squirrels to Eat in Three Species of Food Trees
by Mutsumi Ito, Noriko Tamura and Fumio Hayashi
Biology 2023, 12(10), 1352; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12101352 - 22 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1385
Abstract
To examine the effect of leaf chemical composition on selective herbivory by the Japanese giant flying squirrels (Petaurista leucogenys), we measured and compared the total phenolic, glucose, and water contents of leaves among their main food tree species, deciduous Quercus acutissima [...] Read more.
To examine the effect of leaf chemical composition on selective herbivory by the Japanese giant flying squirrels (Petaurista leucogenys), we measured and compared the total phenolic, glucose, and water contents of leaves among their main food tree species, deciduous Quercus acutissima, and evergreen Q. sessilifolia and Phonitia serratifolia. Leaves of these three tree species were available in the warm season (April to October), but the flying squirrels mostly preferred the leaves of Q. acutissima, having higher glucose and water contents than those of the other two tree species. In the cold season (November to the next March), the two evergreen tree species were available, and the flying squirrels used both leaves without any apparent influence of the chemical compositions. On the other hand, the favorite parts of a single leaf differed among the three tree species. Flying squirrels dropped the individual leaves after partial consumption. Their feeding marks on the dropped leaves were distinguished into four types: apical, basal, central, and marginal parts of consumption. The basal parts of consumption were most frequent in Q. acutissima leaves in which more water was contained at the basal part, and the central part consumption followed, which may be related to a lower phenolic content and more glucose and water at the leaf center than its margin. In contrast, the apically consumed leaves dominated in Q. sessilifolia, with relatively homogeneous leaf chemical distribution except for more water at the center. In P. serratifolia, leaves consumed at the center were frequent, but those with marginal consumption were also observed, which may be related to its specific chemical distribution with less phenolics and more glucose at the leaf margin. Thus, the chemical distributions within the single leaf differ among tree species, and the flying squirrel’s selectivity of the tree species and the part of each leaf depends partly on the relative compositions of preferable glucose and water and unpreferable phenolics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecology and Conservation of Squirrels)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

25 pages, 18795 KiB  
Article
Surrounded by Kindred: Spermophilus major Hybridization with Other Spermophilus Species in Space and Time
by Andrey Tukhbatullin, Oleg Ermakov, Svetlana Kapustina, Vladimir Starikov, Valentina Tambovtseva, Sergey Titov and Oleg Brandler
Biology 2023, 12(6), 880; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12060880 - 17 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1518
Abstract
Among the numerous described cases of hybridization in mammals, the most intriguing are (a) cases of introgressive hybridization deeply affecting the evolutionary history of species, and (b) models involving not a pair of species but a multi-species complex. Therefore, the hybridization history of [...] Read more.
Among the numerous described cases of hybridization in mammals, the most intriguing are (a) cases of introgressive hybridization deeply affecting the evolutionary history of species, and (b) models involving not a pair of species but a multi-species complex. Therefore, the hybridization history of the russet ground squirrel Spermophilus major, whose range has repeatedly changed due to climatic fluctuations and now borders the ranges of four related species, is of great interest. The main aims of this study were to determine the direction and intensity of gene introgression, the spatial depth of the infiltration of extraneous genes into the S. major range, and to refine the hypothesis of the hybridogenic replacement of mitochondrial genomes in the studied group. Using phylogenetic analysis of the variability of mitochondrial (CR, cytb) and nuclear (SmcY, BGN, PRKCI, c-myc, i6p53) markers, we determined the contribution of neighboring species to the S. major genome. We showed that 36% of S. major individuals had extraneous alleles. All peripheral species that were in contact with S. major contributed towards its genetic variability. We also proposed a hypothesis for the sequence and localization of serial hybridization events. Our assessment of the S. major genome implications of introgression highlights the importance of implementing conservation measures to protect this species. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecology and Conservation of Squirrels)
►▼ Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop