草原犬鼠通过杀死种间竞争者来提高适应性。
Prairie dogs increase fitness by killing interspecific competitors.
作者信息
Hoogland John L, Brown Charles R
机构信息
Appalachian Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, 301 Braddock Road, Frostburg, MD 21532, USA
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Tulsa, 800 South Tucker Drive, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA.
出版信息
Proc Biol Sci. 2016 Mar 30;283(1827):20160144. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2016.0144.
Interspecific competition commonly selects for divergence in ecology, morphology or physiology, but direct observation of interspecific competition under natural conditions is difficult. Herbivorous white-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys leucurus) employ an unusual strategy to reduce interspecific competition: they kill, but do not consume, herbivorous Wyoming ground squirrels (Urocitellus elegans) encountered in the prairie dog territories. Results from a 6-year study in Colorado, USA, revealed that interspecific killing of ground squirrels by prairie dogs was common, involving 47 different killers; 19 prairie dogs were serial killers in the same or consecutive years, and 30% of female prairie dogs killed at least one ground squirrel over their lifetimes. Females that killed ground squirrels had significantly higher annual and lifetime fitness than non-killers, probably because of decreased interspecific competition for vegetation. Our results document the first case of interspecific killing of competing individuals unrelated to predation (IK) among herbivorous mammals in the wild, and show that IK enhances fitness for animals living under natural conditions.
种间竞争通常会促使生态、形态或生理特征发生分化，但在自然条件下直接观察种间竞争却很困难。草食性白尾土拨鼠（Cynomys leucurus）采用了一种不同寻常的策略来减少种间竞争：它们会杀死在土拨鼠领地内遇到的草食性怀俄明地松鼠（Urocitellus elegans），但并不食用。美国科罗拉多州一项为期6年的研究结果显示，土拨鼠对松鼠的种间杀戮很常见，涉及47只不同的杀手；19只土拨鼠在同一年或连续几年内是连环杀手，30%的雌性土拨鼠在其一生中至少杀死过一只地松鼠。杀死地松鼠的雌性土拨鼠在年度和终生适应度方面明显高于未杀手，这可能是因为种间对植被的竞争减少了。我们的研究结果记录了野生草食性哺乳动物中首例与捕食无关的种间杀戮竞争个体的案例，并表明种间杀戮竞争提高了生活在自然条件下动物的适应度。
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