Kleiman Michal, Bodek Sivan, Eilam David
Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv 69978, Israel.
Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv 69978, Israel.
Behav Processes. 2014 Oct;108:183-90. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.10.017. Epub 2014 Nov 8.
Individual members of a group must conform to the group norms, as they may otherwise become isolated from the group or the group may split. On the other hand, social groups usually comprise various social ranks and display a differential division of labor and consequently different behaviors. The present study was aimed at examining how the above factors are manifested in social voles that had experienced owl attack. Here, we reconfirm the findings of past studies: that grouped voles converge to display similar behavior after owl attack. In addition, we found that high-mass voles were more active in the open sectors of the experimental set-ups both before and after the owl attack, whereas low-mass voles dichotomized to those that increased and those that decreased their activity in the open following owl attack. Taking body mass as a proxy for social rank, it is suggested that as a consequence of their larger size and of their experience and physical strength, high-mass voles both presented an exemplary model for the low-mass voles and, accordingly, assumed leadership and stabilized their group's behavior. We also suggest a hypothetical model for the propagation of behavior in hierarchical groups.
一个群体中的个体成员必须遵守群体规范，否则他们可能会被群体孤立，或者群体可能会分裂。另一方面，社会群体通常包含不同的社会等级，并表现出劳动分工差异，从而导致不同的行为。本研究旨在考察上述因素在经历过猫头鹰攻击的群居田鼠中是如何体现的。在此，我们再次证实了过去研究的结果：即群居田鼠在猫头鹰攻击后会趋同表现出相似的行为。此外，我们发现，大体型田鼠在猫头鹰攻击前后在实验装置的开放区域都更活跃，而小体型田鼠在猫头鹰攻击后在开放区域的活动则分为增加和减少两类。以体重作为社会等级的代表，表明大体型田鼠由于体型较大、经验丰富和体力较强，既为小体型田鼠提供了一个榜样，相应地，承担了领导角色并稳定了群体行为。我们还提出了一个关于等级群体中行为传播的假设模型。
