Tupai: A Field Study of Bornean TreeshrewsTreeshrews suffer from chronic mistaken identity: they are not shrews, and most are not found in trees. These squirrel-sized, brownish mammals with large, dark, lashless eyes were at one time thought to be primates. Even though most scientists now believe them to belong in their own mammalian order, Scandentia, they still are thought to resemble some of the earliest mammals, which lived alongside the dinosaurs. This book describes the results of the first comparative study of the ecology of treeshrews in the wild. Noted tropical mammalogist Louise H. Emmons conducted this pathbreaking study in the rainforests of Borneo as she tracked and observed six species of treeshrews. Emmons meticulously describes their habitat, diet, nesting habits, home range, activity patterns, social behavior, and many other facets of their lives. She also discusses a particularly interesting aspect of treeshrews: their enigmatic parental care system, which is unique among mammals. |
Contents
An Introduction I | 1 |
The Study Species | 7 |
Field Study Sites and Habitats | 24 |
Treeshrews in Their Habitat | 38 |
Diet and Foraging Behavior | 53 |
Nesting Behavior | 91 |
Activity Patterns | 110 |
Use of Space | 124 |
Life History | 169 |
Predation Predators and Alarm Behaviors | 202 |
Synthesis | 210 |
Methods | 227 |
Mammal Species Found | 237 |
Consumers of Fruit Species | 244 |
| 251 | |
| 261 | |
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Common terms and phrases
absentee activity adult animals arboreal arthropods behavior birds Biun Borneo breeding burrows Callosciurus Callosciurus prevosti canopy captured chap daily Danum Valley dense density diet diurnal drupe eaten ecological elephant shrews Emmons feeding females Ficus foliage followed foraging fruit species fruit tree glis ground habitat home range individuals invertebrates lactating large treeshrews leaf leaves lesser treeshrews liana litter lowland Malaysia male mammalian months nest tree night Orthoptera overlap pair pattern pentail treeshrews pentails percent plain treeshrews Poring predators prey primates prosimians Ptilocercus lowii radio-collared radio-tracking rain rainfall recorded reproductive Sabah samples scats September sleeping sites slender treeshrews small mammals social squirrels study area study plot subadult substrate Sundasciurus surface taxa terrestrial species territory trail trapping traveled treelets treeshrew species trunks Tupaia gracilis Tupaia longipes Tupaia minor Tupaia montana Tupaia species Tupaia tana tupaiids understory vine yellow-bellied bulbul young