Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e55357. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055357. Epub 2013 Jan 30.
Despite the considerable attention devoted to the biology of social species of African mole-rats (Bathyergidae, Rodentia), knowledge is lacking about their behaviour under natural conditions. We studied activity of the largest social bathyergid, the giant mole-rat Fukomys mechowii, in its natural habitat in Zambia using radio-telemetry. We radio-tracked six individuals during three continuous 72-h sessions. Five of these individuals, including a breeding male, belonged to a single family group; the remaining female was probably a solitary disperser. The non-breeders of the family were active (i.e. outside the nest) 5.8 hours per 24h-day with the activity split into 6.5 short bouts. The activity was more concentrated in the night hours, when the animals also travelled longer distances from the nest. The breeding male spent only 3.2 hours per day outside the nest, utilizing less than 20% of the whole family home range. The dispersing female displayed a much different activity pattern than the family members. Her 8.0 hours of outside-nest activity per day were split into 4.6 bouts which were twice as long as in the family non-breeders. Her activity peak in the late afternoon coincided with the temperature maximum in the depth of 10 cm (roughly the depth of the foraging tunnels). Our results suggest that the breeding individuals (at least males) contribute very little to the work of the family group. Nevertheless, the amount of an individual's activity and its daily pattern are probably flexible in this species and can be modified in response to actual environmental and social conditions.
尽管人们对非洲土豚（非洲蹄兔目，啮齿目）的社会性物种的生物学特性给予了相当大的关注，但对它们在自然条件下的行为却知之甚少。我们使用无线电遥测技术在赞比亚的自然栖息地研究了最大的社会性非洲蹄兔——巨型土豚（Fukomys mechowii）的活动情况。我们在三个连续的 72 小时时段内对六只个体进行了无线电追踪。其中五名个体，包括一只繁殖雄性，属于一个单一的家庭群体；剩下的雌性可能是一个单独的扩散者。家庭中的非繁殖个体每天活跃（即不在巢穴中）的时间为 5.8 小时，活动分为 6.5 个短段。活动更集中在夜间，此时动物也会从巢穴中走更远的距离。繁殖雄性每天只在巢穴外花费 3.2 小时，利用的家庭活动范围不到 20%。扩散雌性的活动模式与家庭成员大不相同。她每天在巢穴外活动 8.0 小时，分为 4.6 个段，比家庭中非繁殖个体的段长两倍。她在傍晚的活动高峰与 10 厘米深处（大致是觅食隧道的深度）的温度最大值相吻合。我们的研究结果表明，繁殖个体（至少雄性）对家庭群体的贡献非常小。然而，个体的活动量及其日常模式在这个物种中可能是灵活的，可以根据实际的环境和社会条件进行调整。
