长爪沙鼠的贮食行为与其个性和代谢水平之间的关系

The relationship between hoarding behavior and personality and metabolism in Mongolian gerbils(Meriones unguiculatus)

贮食行为是动物应对食物资源的季节性和不可预测性变化的一种适应性生存策略。在群居性贮食动物中,同胎个体常表现出不同的贮食水平,而关于贮食行为与动物的个性和代谢水平之间的关系尚缺乏研究。本文以长爪沙鼠(Meriones unguiculatus)为对象,在筛选出具有高贮食和低贮食行为特征个体的基础上,比较了两组动物的个性特征(勇敢行为和探究能力)、静止代谢率、血清甲状腺激素水平、贮食期间的运动距离和贮食后的平均每日代谢率等。结果发现:高、低贮食长爪沙鼠的数量各占49%(22/45)和47%(21/45),两组动物之间的个性特征、静止代谢率和血清甲状腺激素均没有显著差异。在贮食期间高贮食个体的运动距离显著高于低贮食个体,且在停止贮食后,高贮食个体的平均每日代谢率显著低于低贮食个体。这些结果表明,在室内条件下,长爪沙鼠的贮食量高低与个性和静止代谢率无关,但高贮食个体会在停止贮食后降低其总能量消耗,以补偿贮食过程中的高能量代价。

Food hoarding is an adaptive strategy in animals to cope with the seasonal and unpredictable changes of food resources. In group-living animals, the siblings usually show different food hoarding behaviors, but the relationship between food hoarding behavior and personality and metabolism has not yet been studied. In this study, we selected Mongolian gerbils(Meriones unguiculatus) with high and low food hoarding behavior, and compared the personality(boldness and exploration), resting metabolic rate, serum thyroid hormones, locomotion distance during food hoarding and average daily metabolic rate after food hoarding of these two groups. Our results showed that the amount of gerbils with high and low food hoarding behavior accounted for 49%(22/45) and 47%(21/45), respectively. Results of this study did not show significant differences in personality, resting metabolic rate and serum thyroid hormones between these two groups. Moreover the movement distance of the high food-hoarders was significantly longer than that of the low food-hoarders during the hoarding period, and the average daily metabolic rate after hoarding in the high food-hoarding group was significantly lower than that in the low food-hoarding group. These findings indicated that the food-hoarding behavior of gerbils in the laboratory condition did not related to the personality and resting metabolic rate, and the high food hoarders would reduce the total energy consumption after food hoarding to compensate the high energy cost during the food hoarding period.