Mammals 3 Flashcards
What is a marsupium?
a pouch that the young are born and developed in
What are 5 features of the North American Opossum?
Prehensile nearly naked, scaly tail Females have a pouch (marsupium) First toe on hind foot is opposable and clawless Born extremely undeveloped (altricial) Complete embryonic development in pouch
What is “Playing possum”?
an involuntary physiological response to extreme fear that results in a near coma for up to 4 hours and is an adaptation to help against predators that don’t like to eat dead things
How do you distinguish between moles and shrews?
Moles have enlarged front feet with broad palms and large claws and are mostly blind and deaf
Shrews have smaller front feet and the claws are not as long and have a long snout with a high forehead
What are 6 features of shrews?
1) small mammals with long pointed noses
2) eyes and external ears are small but visible
3) skull is long and narrow and lacks a zygomatic arch
4) large incisors and red pigment on the tips of teeth (iron deposit)
5) Feed on invertebrates and sometimes small fish and larval amphibians
6) Water shrews have a fring of hairs on their feet adapted for swimming
What are 6 features of moles?
1) front feet and limbs highly modified for digging
2) short tail
3) long snout, small eyes (almost blind) and short neck
4) no tympanic bullae and no esternal ears (pinnae) = mostly deaf
5) fur short and can lay in any direction = adaptation for going in and out of a burrow
6) feed mainly on earthworms
How many species of bats are there in BC?
17
What are 6 features of bats (chiroptera)?
1) forelimbs modified for flight
2) hindlimbs small and weak and knee joint points backwards
3) Calcar - a cartilagionous spur from an ankle bone
4) Large ears with tragus
5) Ecolocation
6) mostly insect eaters
Why are bat knees backwards pointing?
for hanging upside down and to push off of walls etc.
Why do bats have a calcar?
Spread patagium evenly
What is a Tragus?
Fleshy part inside of ear to help with receiving ecolocation
What is Torpor and what sex of bats do this?
Torpor is a semi-hibernation that lasts a few hours and is entered daily by male bats.
Females rarely enter torpor because it wouldn’t likely support an embryo
Females would need to consume more food in order to reach same energy level as males
What is True hibernation?
Prolonged drop in body temperature and metabolic rate and is to conserve energy over days or weeks
How many families are there in the Order Rodentia?
8
What are 3 features of the mountain beaver?
- Most primative living rodent
- Very short tail
- White spot just below ear
What are 3 features of flying squirrels? What order are they in?
Order Rodentia
- Eat fungi, lichens, berries, seeds
- Can glide up to 50m (avg. 20m) from tree to tree
- Dark eyes with a black ring
What order and family do marmots and woodchucks belong?
Order rodentia
Family squirrels
How many species of ground squirrel are therre in BC?
4 species
What are 2 species of native squirrels?
Red squirrel and douglas’ squirrel
What are 2 species of invasive/introduced squirrels?
Eastern fox squirrel and Eastern grey squirrel
What is the problem with the Eastern grey squirrels?
They outcompete red squirrels and the red squirrels waste energy being territorial and competing for food w/ the grey squirrel that doesn’t care about territory
What is a species and a feature of the family pocket gophers?
Northern pocket gopher and has fur-lined external cheek pouches
What kind of cheek food pouch to family pocket mice have?
external fur lined
Why do beavers flood areas?
To make it easier for them to travel around and transport the trees that are their food source
Why do beavers build lodges?
Safety from predators
Why are beavers called ecosystem engineers?
They modify and affect other species
Where is a beaver lodge often located?
In the middle of the pond with an underwater entrance, lodge is above water though
What animals are in the family Muridae?
rats, mice, voles, lemmings, muskrats
What are 3 features of muskrats?
Scaly and laterally flattened tail
Hind feet are partially webbed with stiff hairs
Build burrows in mudbanks of ponds
What is a feature of voles and how many species are found in BC?
10 species of voles
Stocky bodies, short legs and short tail
Look like shrews but have a smaller snout
How do you tell mice and voles apart?
Mice have large eyes, large ears, long tails, pointy noses
Voles have small eyes, smalle ears, short tails, blunt noses
What are the 2 species of introduced rats and how did they get here?
Norway rat and Black rat (roof rat)
Arrived on sailing ships likely
How do you tell norway and black rats apart?
Norway rats have tail that is shorter than head and body and smaller ears
Black rats have a tail longer than head and body and large ears
What is the indroduced species of mouse and 2 features. How do these features differ from the native mice?
House mouse
- naked scaly tail
- associated with humans
Differ from native mice because native mice have furred tails
What are 3 features of the deer mouse?
- Long furry tail
- Dorsal fur brown and ventral fur white
- Dorsal surface of hind foot white
What are 3 features of the bush-tailed (packrat) woodrat?
- Long bushy almost squirrel-like tail
- Skin gland on chest and urination to mark territory
- Long vibrissae
How many species are there in BC of the family jumping mice and what are 2 characteristics?
3 Species
- Long hind limbs and feet
- Very long nearly naked tails
What are the spines on a porcupine?
Modified guard hairs
How do you tell a pika (lagomorph) from rodents?
Pikas have small ears and no tail, rodents have tails
How many native species of hares and rabbits are there in BC
3 (one extirpated and the other 2 not doing well)
What are 2 introduced species of lagomorphs in BC?
Eastern cottontail and European rabbit
What are 3 ways to tell lagomorphs apart from rodents?
- Lagomorph tails are not visible or are powderpuff-like, rodent tails are long and not powderpuffy
- Lagomorph rostrum skull is fenestrated
- Lagomorphs have double upper incisors, one behind the other
