Abstract: Understanding of the activity pattern of subterranean rodents has a great importance to understanding their survival strategies, such as foraging, reproduction, etc. We used radio-tracking technology to monitor the activity pattern of the plateau zokor (Eospalax baileyi) in eastern Qilian Mountain region and analyzed the correlation between soil temperature and tempo of activity of the plateau zokor. The results showed that: (1) the plateau zokor exhibited bimodal patterns of activity throughout 24 h cycles. The first peak time of activity intensity was around 6:00 from June to September, the second peak time was 20:00-22:00 from June to September. During October, the first and second peak time was at 8:00 in the morning and 18:00 PM in the evening respectively. The discrepancy index of daily activity (θ) indicated that the activity time of the plateau zokor was evenly distributed over 24 hours in June. The diurnal and noctumal index(λ) indicated that the plateau zokor was active during the day from June to October. The peak-type index (φ) indicated that the level of bimodal patterns during any given 24 hour period was highest in October, followed by September, July, August and June. The daily-activity time index(A_T) indicated that the activity time of the plateau zokor was 7 hours per day in September and was over 10 hours per day in other months. (2) Correlation analysis showed that the activity intensity at 6:00 in September was positively correlated with the soil temperature at a depth of 5 cm underground (P<0.05). In other months, there was no significant correlation between activity intensity and soil temperature (P>0.05). Based on the above results, we concluded that the activity pattern of the plateau zokor is influenced by changes in light intensity and day length, and the activity intensity of the zokor was not affected by the soil temperature.

Key words: Activity pattern, Plateau zokor, Radio-tracking, Soil temperature

关键词: 活动节律, 高原鼢鼠, 无线电追踪, 土壤温度