FIRST RECORD OF MYOXUS GLIS FROM
PATRAS, GREECE
Stamatopoulos, C.
University of Patras, Section of Animal Biology, Greece. E
mail: costamat@upatras.gr
The first attempt to study the ecology and behavior of Myoxus
in Greece led to 6 - months (March 1999 – September 1999)
period of observing in the wild, a small population in Kastritsi.
Although, a full ecological and behavioral study has not been
undertaken, yet, we are able to make the following remarks:
- Myoxus use naturally built holes inside the
branches of trees. These holes are suitably developed so
to have more than one openings all facing down to the
earth. The hole just behind the entrance is filled with
leaves, and the main nest is behind them, further inside
the branch. Each nest seems to be occupied by one or two
adults and a few young ones.
- The adults seem to defend a territory of branches,
including the one with the nest. They chase away other
individuals, although we did not observe any real
fighting. During their nocturnal activity they jump from
one tree to another, but they don’t get very far away
from their own nesting tree.
- They are noisy creatures, making loud churning sounds. We
do not know the clear purpose of this, but they are used
for the communication between sexes and as defending or
alarm signals.
- The nocturnal activity begins just after sunset and ends
just after sunrise (the exact time depends on the season
and month). We observed two picks of activity during the
period of our study; one early in April were they feed on
oak-seeds and the other early in September were they feed
on walnuts.
- They are not much afraid of man and they sometimes nest
in roofs. They were not disturbed even with the light of
a torch on them, although that light caused the animals
to fall from tree in a case or two. Inquiries with the
villagers revealed that people often saw Myoxus
inside their houses, eating stored seeds etc.
Before Next Abstracts