We present an analysis of behavioral flexibility in a day-active caviomorph rodent, the degu, Octodon degus, in response to temporal (daily and seasonal), spatial, and thermal heterogeneity of its environment. We quantified activity and foraging behavior in a population, together with thermal conditions, in an open habitat in the seasonally hot and arid matorral of central Chile. Summer activity was bimodal, with a gap of more than 8 h between the morning bout of 2.5 h of intensive foraging and the afternoon bout of 2 h. More than half of the 4.5 h of summer activity occurred in the shade of early morning or late afternoon when the sun was below the local skyline. Autumn and spring activity were also bimodal, but with greater proportions of activity under... |