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The trend towards sociality in three species of southern African mole-rats (Bathyergidae) : causes and consequences

Includes bibliographies.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bennett, Nigel Charles
Other Authors: Jarvis, J U M
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Biological Sciences 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Bennett, Nigel Charles
author2 Jarvis, J U M
author_browse Bennett, Nigel Charles
Jarvis, J U M
author_facet Jarvis, J U M
Bennett, Nigel Charles
author_sort Bennett, Nigel Charles
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographies.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8413
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:34:38.153Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Department of Biological Sciences
publisherStr Department of Biological Sciences
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/8413 The trend towards sociality in three species of southern African mole-rats (Bathyergidae) : causes and consequences Bennett, Nigel Charles Jarvis, J U M Zoology Includes bibliographies. Three species of southern African mole-rats, possessing a wide range of social organisation were used to investigate the trend towards increasing sociality occurring in species inhabiting increasingly arid environments. The strictly solitary Georychus capensis, the weakly social Cryptomys hottentotus hottentotus and the highly social Cryptomys damarensis were chosen for this investigation and my findings are compared, where possible, with the eusocial Heterocephalus glaber. The level of social organisation exhibited by a particular mole-rat species appears to be dependent upon a number of physical factors as well as on the food resource distribution, its nutritional properties and its availability. Thus the soil moisture content, the annual rainfall pattern and the wear upon the extrabuccal incisors limit the amount of burrowing which can be undertaken by a single mole-rat, both on a daily and seasonal basis. These factors together with the size, distribution, digestible energy and fibre content of the geophytes on which they feed and nearest-neighbour distances occurring between the belowground portions of the geophytes, may be crucial in determining whether a habitat is suitable for solitary or colonial mole-rats. 2014-10-11T12:21:40Z 2014-10-11T12:21:40Z 1988 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8413 eng application/pdf Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Zoology
Bennett, Nigel Charles
The trend towards sociality in three species of southern African mole-rats (Bathyergidae) : causes and consequences
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title The trend towards sociality in three species of southern African mole-rats (Bathyergidae) : causes and consequences
title_full The trend towards sociality in three species of southern African mole-rats (Bathyergidae) : causes and consequences
title_fullStr The trend towards sociality in three species of southern African mole-rats (Bathyergidae) : causes and consequences
title_full_unstemmed The trend towards sociality in three species of southern African mole-rats (Bathyergidae) : causes and consequences
title_short The trend towards sociality in three species of southern African mole-rats (Bathyergidae) : causes and consequences
title_sort trend towards sociality in three species of southern african mole rats bathyergidae causes and consequences
topic Zoology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8413
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