Mechanisms of Social Recognition in Belding's Ground Squirrels

贝尔丁地松鼠的社会识别机制

• 批准号: 9808704
• 负责人: Jill Mateo
• 金额: $ 17万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-09-01 至 2001-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9808704&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Mechanisms; Social; Recognition; Belding; Ground

Mateo 9808704Many species, including humans, can discriminate among individuals according to genetic relatedness. Yet how this kin recognition is accomplished remains largely unexplored. Spermophilus beldingi are group-living squirrels that exhibit many forms of nepotism (favoritism directed at kin), including territory defense and predator avoidance, which require the ability to identify relatives. These studies will determine how this species uses odors for recognition, examine the limits of kin discrimination, and describe the development of both kin-based odors and kin recognition. Odor production and perception will be studied with controlled odor presentations to captive S. beldingi, and these results will be complemented by observations of free-living animals.When these studies are completed, S. beldingi will be one of the first organisms for which we have a thorough understanding of favoritism based on kinship that spans both mechanistic and evolutionary explanations for kin recognition. The results can be applied to other species that are threatened with extinction, as an understanding of how individuals use space and communicate with olfactory cues may be critical to the maintenance or relocation of populations. Finally, kin-recognition research may shed light on controversies among scientists who attempt to explain human behavior in an evolutionary framework; namely, how and why humans would either advertise or conceal their relatedness to others.

Mateo 9808704许多物种，包括人类，可以根据遗传相关性来区分个体。然而，这种亲属识别是如何实现的仍然很大程度上未被探索。 Spermophilus beldingi 是群居松鼠，表现出多种形式的裙带关系（针对亲属的偏爱），包括领地防御和躲避捕食者，这需要有识别亲属的能力。这些研究将确定该物种如何利用气味进行识别，检查亲属歧视的局限性，并描述基于亲属的气味和亲属识别的发展。我们将通过对圈养的 S.beldingi 进行受控气味呈现来研究气味的产生和感知，并且这些结果将通过对自由生活的动物的观察进行补充。当这些研究完成时，S.beldingi 将成为我们研究的第一批生物体之一。对基于亲属关系的偏袒有透彻的理解，涵盖了亲属识别的机械和进化解释。研究结果可以应用于其他面临灭绝威胁的物种，因为了解个体如何使用空间和与嗅觉线索进行交流可能对于种群的维持或迁移至关重要。最后，亲属识别研究可能会揭示那些试图在进化框架中解释人类行为的科学家之间的争议。也就是说，人类如何以及为何会宣传或隐藏自己与他人的关系。