dormouse_hibernation {ecoteach} | R Documentation |
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. 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))