dormouse_hibernation: Dormouse Hibernation and Reproduction Dataset

In ecoteach: Educational Datasets for Ecology and Agriculture

Dormouse Hibernation and Reproduction Dataset

Description

This dataset contains hibernation and reproductive data for edible dormice (Glis glis). The data tracks hibernation patterns, body mass changes, and reproductive activity across multiple years and individuals. The study examines how age affects hibernation timing and reproductive behavior in these small hibernating mammals.

Usage

dormouse_hibernation

Format

A data frame with 290 rows and 16 variables:

animal_id

Unique identifier for each dormouse

year_birth

Year of birth for the animal

age

Age of the animal in years

log_age

Logarithm of age

body_mass_before

Body mass before hibernation (g)

body_mass_after

Body mass after hibernation (g)

hibernation_duration

Duration of hibernation in days

hibernation_start

Date when hibernation started (DD.MM.YY format)

hibernation_end

Date when hibernation ended (DD.MM.YY format)

hibernation_end_year_before

End date of previous year's hibernation

body_mass_spring

Body mass in spring (g)

year

Year of observation

sex

Sex of the animal (male or female)

diet

Diet type (medium, high fat, or protein)

age_death

Age at death in years

repro_active

Whether the animal was reproductively active (yes or no)

Details

The research shows that age strongly affects hibernation/activity patterns through two pathways: (1) with increasing age, dormice are more likely to reproduce, which delays hibernation onset, and (2) age directly advances emergence from hibernation in spring. This suggests hibernation is not merely an energy-saving strategy but an age-affected life-history trait used to maximize fitness.

Source

Bieber, Claudia and Turbill, Christopher and Ruf, Thomas (2019). Data from: Effects of aging on timing of hibernation and reproduction. Dryad Digital Repository. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.5061/DRYAD.8004G37")}

Examples

# Load the dataset
data(dormouse_hibernation)

# Basic exploration
head(dormouse_hibernation)
summary(dormouse_hibernation)

# Examine hibernation duration by age
boxplot(hibernation_duration ~ age, data = dormouse_hibernation, 
        main = "Hibernation Duration by Age",
        xlab = "Age (years)", ylab = "Duration (days)")
        
# Compare body mass change during hibernation
with(dormouse_hibernation, 
     plot(body_mass_before, body_mass_after, 
          col = as.integer(sex),
          main = "Body Mass Before vs After Hibernation",
          xlab = "Body Mass Before (g)", 
          ylab = "Body Mass After (g)"))
legend("topleft", levels(dormouse_hibernation$sex), 
       col = 1:2, pch = 1)
       
# Examine reproductive activity by age
with(subset(dormouse_hibernation, !is.na(repro_active)), 
     table(age, repro_active))

ecoteach documentation built on June 29, 2025, 5:08 p.m.