FORESTRY IDEAS, 2021, vol. 27, No 1 (61): 59–67 ACTIVITY OF THE EUROPEAN MOLE TALPA EUROPAEA (TALPIDAE, INSECTIVORA) IN ITS BURROWS IN THE REPUBLIC OF MORDOVIA Alexey Andreychev Department of Zoology, National Research Mordovia State University, Saransk 430005, Russia. E-mail: [email protected] Received: 16 February 2021 Accepted: 18 April 2021 Abstract A new method of studying the activity of European mole Talpa europaea (Linnaeus, 1758) with use of digital portable voice recorders is developed. European mole demonstrates polyphasic activity pattern – three peaks of activity alternate three peaks of relative rest. Moles are found to have activity peaks from 23:00 to 3:00 h, from 6:00 to 9:00 h and from 15:00 to 18:00 h, and three periods of rest: from 3:00 to 6:00 h, from 9:00 to 15:00 h and from 18:00 to 23:00 h. Mole’s rest is relative since animals show low activity during periods of rest. Average daily interval between mole passes is 2.5 h. Duration of audibility of continuous single European mole pass by the mi- crophone varies from 11 to 120 seconds. On average, it is 37.5 seconds. Key words: animals, daily activity, day-night activity, voice recorder. Introduction where light factor is essential (Shilov 2001). Activity of many mammals is in- In many countries, the European mole Tal- vestigated under various conditions of the pa europaea (Linnaeus, 1758) is an object light regime. For underground animals, of constant modern research (Komarnicki especially for the different mole species, 2000, Prochel 2006, Kang et al. 2009). such information is fragmentary. It inhabits mixed and deciduous forests, Individual moles occupied a well de- forest-steppes of Europe and Western fined home range, which varied in size Siberia to the east to Irtysh (Pavlinov et from an average of 4300 m2 for males to al. 2002, Zaytcev et al. 2014). For a long an average of 1658 m2 for females. Range time, systematic researches on the ecol- overlap was observed between animals of ogy and biology of this species have not different sex, while home ranges patrolled been conducted in Russia. by animals of same sex were largely ex- The biological activity of animals is cor- clusive. Overlap was highly reduced when responding and consistent with the level core areas of activity were considered. of daily and seasonal cycles in changing Daily activity rhythms showed a regular the complex of environment conditions alternation between periods of rest and 60 A. Andreychev activity, each lasting about four hours. Ac- mole in its burrows. This paper presents tivity patterns of females were better syn- the results of research in this area and chronized then those of males, a feature describes the method that can be used to probably related to mating activity (Loy et study other underground animals. al. 1992, 1994). Mole shows more activity at night than during the day (Kuzyakin 1935), although Material and Methods Stein (1950) reported there was no dif- ference. A lot of studies showed that the The work was carried out in two districts activity of moles alternates every three to of Republic of Mordovia – located in four hours (Gorman and Stone 1990, Loy the centre of the European part of Rus- et al. 1992). Individual area and rhythms sia. The study area belongs to the for- of activity were investigated using radio est-steppe natural zone. The climate of telemetry and radioactive isotope (God- the region is moderately continental with frey 1955, Gorman and Stone 1990, Loy pronounced seasons throughout the year. et al. 1992, Macdonald et al. 1996). Anal- The influx of direct solar radiation varies ysis of daily and seasonal activity of North from 5.0 in December to 58.6 kJ/cm2 in Caucasian mole (Talpa caucasica Sat., June. Total radiation throughout the year 1908) demonstrates that this species is is 363.8 kJ/cm2, the radiation balance is active year-round, day and night (Dzuyev 92.1 kJ/cm2. The average annual air tem- et al. 2015). perature varies from 3.5 to 4.0 °C. The av- Studies by Macdonald et al. (1996) erage temperature of the warmest month, show that moles had a triphasic pattern July, is in the range of +18.9 to +19.8 °C. of activity, but this became tetraphasic un- Extreme temperatures in June reached der drought conditions. These differences 33 °C (in 2019). Extreme temperatures could be related to seasonal differences in July reached 35 °C (in 2020). Extreme in soil moisture. On average, each mole temperatures in August reached 32 °C spent only 0.9 % of its time within 6 m of (in 2016, 2019). The average annual pre- another mole, and only 3 out of 46 dyads cipitation is 480 mm. Over the course of showed evidence of being attracted to observation lasting for many years, peri- each other; there was no evidence from ods of more and less humidification were the simultaneous movement patterns of noted, ranging between the minimum and neighbouring moles that they avoided maximum values of 120–180 mm. Distri- each other. Although moles tended to re- bution of precipitation across the territory turn to the same part of their range at the is not very diverse. The average long-term same time on successive days, there was value of evaporation is calculated to be in also some indication of gradual changes the range of 390–460 mm (Yamashkin in the spatial pattern of daily home range 1998, Andreychev 2017). use. The study was conducted at the bio- In the Middle Volga, the activity of Eu- logical station (village Simkino) of Mordo- ropean mole has not been studied before, vian University in Bolshebereznikovsky so there was a hypothesis about the ap- district (54º17′ N and 46º16′ E) and in Sa- plicability of the polyphase activity rhythm ransk city district (54º16′ N and 45º11′ E) of the animal in our conditions. Aim of this in 2016–2020. In the first section, the bi- study is to assess activity of the European otope is a mixed forest, and in the sec- Activity of the European Mole Talpa europaea (Talpidae, Insectivora) in its Burrows ... 61 ond section, the biotope is a broad-leaved dreychev et al. 2017, Lapshin et al. 2018, forest. Moles are distributed unevenly Andreychev 2019a). I looked for near-sur- in the region because it is quite close to face burrows of 50–55 mm in diameter the southern border of their habitat which that crossed dirt roads. I opened mole’s goes across Penza oblast, to the south burrows along the roadside and installed of Penza (Zaytcev et al. 2014). In Volga Olympus voice recorders perpendicular Region the European mole is a common to burrow’s direction. Each recorder was widespread species (Sokolov 1984). In placed in a 0.3–0.5 liter water plastic bot- the forest, where its activity was inves- tle used as a container. The catch of moles tigated, were registered 6 to 9 burrows after studying their activity at the end of per 1 km. According to the assessments August was performed with cylinders. It of European mole habitats in the North- was done to determine the number of an- West of Russia (Rusakov 1965, Nesterk- imals living in burrows. The total absence ova 2014), favourable ones are defined of moles was then established by means as areas containing 15 or more burrows of voice recorders, which records were per 1 km, areas containing 5–10 burrows assessed for the absence or presence of considered to be satisfactory, and areas moles’ noises (Fig. 1). Up to five moles containing less than 5 burrows are medi- were caught from each of the burrows at ocre. Thus, the study was conducted in the end of the summer, a total of 24 indi- satisfactory European mole areas. viduals were caught during the work. Before studying the mole, the method Activity for certain months (June, July, with the use of voice recorders was tested August) was detected as follows: initially, and improved in the study of the activities activity of the animals was fixed at each of different animal species (Russian des- place where a voice recorder was in- man, greater mole-rat, Eagle owl) (An- stalled by registering the number of ani- Fig. 1. Oscillogram obtained by recording noises by voice recorder in a burrow. 62 A. Andreychev mal passes trough main (transit) passag- small amount of fresh ground emissions, es near the recorder per day (24-hour pe- we kept microphones until alkaline bat- riod); this number was taken as 100 %. In teries run out (completely discharged) total, 14 voice recorders were used. The so that to make objective assessment of studies were conducted on both sites in 7 activity. And, on the contrary, in continu- burrows each. The area of each plot was ous network of burrows with a lot of fresh 1 km2. Then activity rate (%) was evaluat- molehills under changing weather condi- ed for certain hours, e.g. 15.00 to 16.00 h. tions (long-lasting rains), in order to save To make description more convenient, voice recorders from moisture, working days were conditionally divided by hours time was reduced to 48 h (2 days). Sound into periods of activity and relative rest. As recordings were carried out in the same a rule, the following record schedule was mole burrows. During the study, 123 used: 3–4 days in each decade of each sound records were received and pro- month. The duration of voice recorder us- cessed with the total duration of 10,670 h age in burrows depended on expediency.