Sensory Ecology of Subterranean Rodents

Abstract

Ever since Dusenbery’s seminal monograph published in 1992, sensory ecology has been defined as the study of how organisms acquire and respond to information. Hence, in contrast to classical ecology with its focus on energy flows, sensory ecology deals with information flows (Dusenbery 1992). Since this information is closely linked to the animal’s environment, sensory ecology tries to find answers to the question of how the animal interacts with its environment. On the one hand, the animal’s environment consists of the physical properties of its habitat, and on the other hand it also implies the interactionswith other animals. In the case of subterranean mammals, the ecotope is dark, rather monotonous and harsh in comparison to the situation found above the ground (Burda et al., this volume). These differences between the underground and aboveground ecotopes led early scientistsworkingwith subterraneanmammals to speculate about the sensory equipment of their study objects (Eloff 1951, 1958; Crawford 1966; Quilliam 1966; Poduschka 1978). A first review of studies on sensory adaptations in subterranean rodents conducted until the late 1980s is given by Burda et al. (1990a). Within the past decade, the number of papers dealing with sensory ecology in subterranean rodents, including a relevant review by Francescoli (2000), has increased drastically, covering “basic senses” like olfaction, vision, and hearing, but also “exotic senses” (i.e. rarely found in mammals) like magnetoreception. Interestingly, many studies on sensory ecology in subterranean rodents revealed mammalian peculiarities or extremes: unusual photoreceptor properties in blind (David-Gray et al. 2002) and Ansell’s mole-rats (Peichl et al. 2004), magnetoreception in small Zambian mole-rats (Burda et al. 1990b; Marhold et al. 1997), or reduced cutaneous nociception (Park et al. 2003) in naked mole-rats to mention just a few studies, making subterranean mammals a fruitful field for investigations. This “publication boom” is also reflected in this volume, as the sensory ecology part amounts to approximately a third of this book. The senses