Anyone got the following Gerbil literature?(+ found some).
Jul 1, 2020 14:40:32 GMT -8
alicemoll likes this
Post by Markpd on Jul 1, 2020 14:40:32 GMT -8
I'm trying to find the article where Eva Waiblinger. according to egerbil.com apparently mentions 'If you want to truly make your gerbil happy, let them dig a burrow. That is their "job" and is one of their main occupations in the wild besides collecting food and socializing. She recommends that wherever possible, gerbils should be kept in large, deep substrate tanks (at least 100x50x50cm for 2-3 gerbils, and 150x60x60 cm for 4-6 animals, with at least 30cm deep bedding) and should be left to dig their own burrows. For gerbils in labs they trialled the artificial burrow systems in a laboratory cage type IV [38 x 58 cm x 20 cm height] (15x23x8). (approx. 10 imp.Gallons)'.
Ref. this article www.egerbil.com/housing.html
After hours of digging I finally managed to get an article of hers which wasn't behind a pay wall! The article by her from 2004 is called "Refinement of gerbil housing and husbandry in the laboratory", if you want to read it, click that link then hit 'Download full-text PDF'. (took me hours to find that free one earlier, yet it's on Google's 1st search page if I search for the reference to Brunner!! wth??), anyway, broadly speaking this talks about the lack of burrows causing the stereo-typical digging and how to (mostly) avoid it, but it makes no mention of that cage size, or any reference to a good cage size for a pet Gerbil (it does refer to lab cage sizes).
(JFYI, related to that article, I stumbled across this semi-hidden page by her called 'Comfortable Quarters for Gerbils in Research Institutions' 2002).
I think it might be in articles written by her called the 'The Laboratory Gerbil' in the 'The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other Research Animals' (2010, 8th edition), but I can only see part of that without paying for it. Although, actually I doubt it's that one as you can see a small section about 'min cage requirements' and it only mentions EU minimums for the time, but their are pages missing in the free one.
Or maybe it could be in her much newer article from 2018 called 'Mongolian Gerbils' for 'Companion Animal Care and Welfare: The UFAW Companion Animal Handbook' (2019), but again the free one is missing pages .
And the diagram and photos in 2019 UFAW p219 show a larger cage & an enclosure which seem to be semi-natural showing many burrows, but any text that might reference those diagrams specifically are possibly in the missing pages!
Also, in her 2004 paper she mentions and sites brunner 1993 talking about "In a semi-natural setting (arena of moist sand, 2.0 × 2.0 × 0.7 m), Brunner (1993) excavated burrows constructed by a family of gerbils. She found no fixed layout. A vast network of tunnels", ref 'Wiedenmayer C and Brunner C 1993 Is stereotyped behaviour in gerbils determined by housing conditions? In: Nichelmann M, Wierenga H K and Braun S (eds) International Congress on Applied Ethology, Berlin pp 276-278. Humboldt-Universität: Berlin, Germany', but I can find absolutely nothing on that!
So has anyone got any full copies of these?
Additional literature wanted :-
Agren G, Zhou Q and Zhong W 1989 Ecology and social behaviour of Mongolian gerbils, (pay walled). (free exert here)
Gerbil papers available/found :-
elib.tiho-hannover.de/dissertations/schulze-sievertu_2002.pdf (currently intermittently available, in German).
Population dynamics of the Mongolian gerbils: Seasonal patterns and interactions among density, reproduction and climate W. Liua,b, X. Wana, W. Zhong (Aug 2006) - I don't know where I found this now, as the only link listed in Google doesn't work. I've uploaded it to my google drive, so if anyone wants it, click here.
Housing and Husbandry Conditions Affect Stereotypic Behaviour in Laboratory Gerbils by Waiblinger and Konig, (Jan 2007)
Effects of supplemental food on the social organization of Mongolian gerbils during the breeding season W. Liu1, G. Wang2, X. R.Wan1 &W. Q. Zhong1 Journal of Zoology (Feb 2009)
POPULATION ECOLOGY OF WILD MONGOLIAN GERBILS MERIONES UNGUICULATUS by WEI LIU, GUIMING WANG,* YANNI WANG, WENQIN ZHONG, AND XINRONG WAN (2009) (click on pdf).
Home-range sizes of social groups of Mongolian gerbils Meriones unguiculatus by Y. Wang, W. Liua, G. Wang, X. Wana, W. Zhong Journal of Arid Environments (Feb 2011)
Genetic Consequences of Group Living in Mongolian Gerbils by YANNI WANG, WEI LIU, G. M. WANG, WENQIN ZHONG, AND XINRONG WAN Journal of Heredity (July 2011)
Inter-group associations in Mongolian gerbils: Quantitative evidence from social network analysis. Integrative Zoology 12, 446–56. Deng K, Liu W, Wang D (2017).
Relatedness and spatial distance modulate intergroup interactions: experimental evidence from a social rodent by Ke DENG, Wei LIU, De-Hua WANG (Nov 2018)
A leaflet/handbook by the Swiss animal welfare, contributed to by Eva Waiblinger, amongst various things, talks about large cage sizes. Original German link , [update] with the help of DeepL and a little Google translate (DeepL is better ) I have now translated that article/handbook , see here.
There's also the thread by nauticalamity , with links to a couple of papers from the 1960s, including something by Mr Kasuga, who I believe was the person who brought 20 Gerbils into Japan, which then lead onto the group that was exported to the US and them becoming pets there, and then later here in the UK!