干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Microhabitat use and diet of a small mammal community comprising seven species were investigated in the southern Kalahari, South Africa. The rodents (six species: Gerbillurus paeba, Rhabdomys pumilio, Aethomys namaquensis, Mus indutus, Saccostomus campestris, Desmodillus auricularis) were primarily herbivorous and the single elephant shrew Elephantulus intufi was largely insectivorous, indicating limited partitioning along a trophic axis. The two most abundant rodent species G. paeba and R. pumilio differed in their periods of activity as well as their use of the horizontal foraging microhabitat, indicating temporal and spatial resource partitioning. The remaining rodent species were nocturnal, beneath-shrub foragers.