Dormouse fur glows purple under UV light with yellow filter and red without filter
Carmel Ritson and Grete Nummert
Garden dormouse may not look particularly showy. In fact, little brownish-white rodents spend most of their lives unseen. But in the right light, these dormouses glow bright pinks and greenish-blues, according to new research.
Photoluminescence occurs when matter absorbs photons of ultraviolet light and re-emits them at longer wavelengths. It is found in many marine animals, some insects and millipedes, and the feathers of some birds. This involves two processes, fluorescence, in which photons are re-emitted almost immediately, and phosphorescence, which persists for several minutes.
Grete Nummert of the Tallinn Zoo, Estonia, wondered if there were dormouse in her garden after seeing a recent study that found photoluminescence in nocturnal mammals such as flying squirrels and flying hares. (Eliomys quercinus) Photoluminescence is also visible. She made a high-stakes bet with her colleague.
She and her colleagues collected several sleeping garden dormouse at the Tallinn Zoo and exposed the animals to ultraviolet light through a yellow filter.
Most of the mouse’s fur had a bright reddish-pink glow. Without the yellow filter, the fur looks more purple. The paws and nose, on the other hand, were bluish green.
To broaden the scope of their observations, the researchers examined a dormouse kept at the Estonian Museum of Natural History under UV light. These older specimens also showed photoluminescence, but their colors had faded over the years.
Nummert, who says the cake she won was “delicious,” is still unsure why the dormouse is photogenic. Some parrots use photoluminescence to signal potential mating partners. Spring hares have patchy photoluminescence, which helps them camouflage themselves among plants that reflect light in similar ways, depending on the type of creature they are looking at.
It is also possible that the photoluminescence exhibited by dormouse and other rodents is a byproduct of what they eat, or other natural processes. is not. Humans certainly cannot perceive without the aid of ultraviolet light.
“There is a whole world that we cannot see,” says Nummert. “Animals perceive the world differently than we do.”
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