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Mammal Study
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Abstract
Abstract.
Bark gleaning, habitual foraging over the bark of very wide vertical arboreal substrates by claw clinging and climbing with extremely abducted limbs, represents one of the most interesting squirrel adaptations and is associated with the morphologically specialized pygmy squirrels. However, this behavior may be also common in other small squirrels, such as Cambodian striped squirrels (Tamiops rodolphii) that lack similar apomorphies. In effect, field research and video analysis in southern Vietnam revealed that T. rodolphii is characterized by frequent use of large vertical substrates and engages in high percentages of clawed climbing and clawed clinging, comparable, albeit lower, to those of pygmy squirrels. Actually, this squirrel species, and its closest congener, T. macclellandi, may represent the early representatives of a small squirrel radiation that shifted to bark gleaning, taking advantage of their small size. Finally, the fact that bark gleaning squirrel species, with or without morphological specializations, are located in the forests of South America, Central Africa and South East Asia indicates the importance of bark foraging niche across tropical forests.
We are particularly grateful to the anonymous reviewers and the editor who provided insightful comments that greatly improved this research paper. We are also grateful to Eugene Yakhontov for help during video-recording in the field and Ksenia Kotelnikova for her help in the geo-botanical characteristics of the study area. Field research in Vietnam was conducted through the invaluable contribution of the Russian-Vietnamese Tropical Centre, which provided the opportunity and permits to carry out research. The authors also wish to express their gratitude to financial support provided by the bilateral agreement between Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Lomonossov Moscow State University. Field research and subsequent analyses followed the guidelines for Ethical treatment of animals of the Lomonossov Moscow State University and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
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