Temporal activity patterns of crested porcupines Hystrix cristata

Abstract

The activity of radiotagged adult crested porcupines Hystrix cristata L., 1758, was studied in a rural hilly area of Central Italy, from July 1990 to June 1991. Three males and one female were monitored every 15 minutes for 18–24 hours/individual/week, and their activity patterns were correlated to ambient temperature, precipitation and lunar phases. Three individuals, out of the four monitored, showed a fall of activity in the beginning of the cold season, but generally porcupines appeared adapted to a wide spectrum of temperatures. The mean duration of nocturnal and crepuscular activity was 9 h 22'±42', showing little variation throughout the year. In the cold months, i.e. when nights are relatively longer, porcupines usually left their burrows after sunset and came back some hours before sunrise. In the warm season they left their burrows at sunset, or shortly before, and returned at sunrise, or shortly after. Overall diurnal activity was scarce (2 h 11' ± 1 h 30'), but in spring it increased to over 40% of the diel activity (3 h 22' ± 3 h). Moonlight avoidance was slight. Precipitation did not seem to influence the activity of porcupines.

Cathemerality in a small, folivorous primate: proximate control of diel activity in Hapalemur meridionalis

“…lunar luminance or environmental variables) can override endogenous circadian rhythms by inhibiting or enhancing activity (Erkert 1989;Chiesa et al 2010). Decreasing activity with increasing lunar illumination (lunarphobia) is common in many mammals (Penteriani et al 2011;Prugh and Golden 2014), including carnivores (Halle 2000;Packer et al 2011), bats (Erkert 1974(Erkert , 1976Saldaña-Vázquez and Munguía-Rosas 2013), rodents (O'Farrell 1974;Kaufman and Kaufman 1982;Corsini et al 1995;Upham and Hafner 2013), and primates (Bearder et al 2006;Starr et al 2012;Rode-Margono and Nekaris 2014). Conversely, relatively few mammals display lunarphilia, i.e.…”

Ectoparasite load in the crested porcupine Hystrix cristata Linnaeus, 1758 in Central Italy

“…Spatial and temporal behaviors of paired male and female crested porcupine are almost completely overlapping (Corsini et al 1995;Mori et al 2014a, d); the species is thought to be monogamous (Mori and Lovari 2014). So, the higher tick load in males could not be due to any differences in their exploratory behavior compared to females.…”

“…Abundance of P. irritans and P. melis on porcupines in winter, with respect to the other seasons, may be related to behavior of these insects: they are nidicolous ectoparasites that can be found in nests/dens of host animals, particularly in winter (Cox et al 1999;Rafinejad et al 2013). Porcupines partly reduce their activity in cold months, thus resting longer in their underground dens (Corsini et al 1995), where they may be more exposed to parasite infestation. Moreover, den sharing with badgers, foxes, and martens further increases the potential for parasite infestation (Tinelli and Tinelli 1980;Pigozzi 1986;Mori et al 2014b).…”

An Application of Advanced Spatio-Temporal Formalisms to Behavioural Ecology

“…The scarce information available on the behaviour of this species belonging to the gender Hystrix seems to indicate that the main activity of such animals during the time spent outside the den is feeding [8,18,30]. Clearly, most of the social interactions take place inside the den.…”

“…The crested porcupine is a semi-fossorial rodent [28,8,18,30]. The scarce information available on the behaviour of this species belonging to the gender Hystrix seems to indicate that the main activity of such animals during the time spent outside the den is feeding [8,18,30].…”