Based on studies of vaginal smears from wild-caught Swedish wood mice, females with three types of estrous cycles were identified: females with a continuous estrus; females with an estrous cycle between 6 and 11 days in length; and females that only rarely showed signs of estrus. We tested the pregnancy rates and how stable the estrus patterns were among the females. Ninety-one percent of the f...

Small mammals serve as reservoir hosts for tick-borne pathogens, especially for those which are not transmitted transovarially in ticks - such as Babesia microti. Molecular investigations on the prevalence of B. microti in wild small mammals and on attached ticks from differently structured areas may provide information on the circulation of B. microti in different ecological niches. In 2012 an...

Photo 1: Flowering P. bourgaeana trees (upper left), fruiting pear tree right), aborted fruit (lower and one several ripe developed fruits right). credit: Miguel Delibes Jose M. Fedriani (all other panels). 2: Some of the rodent species involved in our study concerning seed predation dispersal by rodents; Algerian mouse Mus spretus garden dormouse Eliomys quercinus wood Apodemus sylvaticus, Fed...

Linear infrastructures represent one of the most important human impacts on natural habitats and exert several effects on mammal populations. Motorways are recognized as a major cause of habitat fragmentation and degradation and of biodiversity loss. However, it is unknown whether motorways lead to increased physiological stress reactions in wild animal populations. We analysed faecal corticost...

Wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) were captured at Blokkersdijk, a nature reserve in the immediate vicinity of a fluorochemical plant in Antwerp, Belgium, and at Galgenweel, 3 kilometers farther away. The liver perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) concentrations in the Blokkersdijk mice were extremely high (0.47-178.55 micro g/g wet weight). Perfluorononanoic, perfluorodecanoic, perfluoroundecano...