Does spatial learning ability of common voles (Microtus arvalis) and bank voles (Myodes glareolus) constrain foraging efficiency?
Does spatial learning ability of common voles (Microtus arvalis) and bank voles (Myodes glareolus) constrain foraging efficiency?
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DOI：
10.1007/s10071-010-0327-8
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发表时间：
2010-11-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Winter, York
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Haupt, Moritz;Eccard, Jana A.;Winter, York
地点学习能力也代表了在特定时空条件下有助于觅食效率的适应性。我们研究了这种能力是否反过来限制了两种同域田鼠的决策：草食性普通田鼠（Microtus arvalis）以时空可预测的食物资源（如植物块茎的根、块茎和芽）为食，杂食性银行田鼠（Myodes glareolus）则以时空不可预测的食物资源（如昆虫和种子）为食。在这里，我们比较了两个物种的空间参考记忆和工作记忆。在一个有8个水源地的自动操作家养笼子中，雌性田鼠要么学习非枯竭水源地的固定位置（参考记忆任务），要么学习并避开以前访问过的一次耗尽的水源地（赢移任务）。在参考记忆任务中，鼠母鼠需要更多的选择来找到所有的水域，初始表现略差于鼠母鼠，并且表现出略低的渐近表现。这两个物种在同一任务的新学习方面非常相似。在更复杂的win-shift任务中，Microtus的渐近表现（72%正确率）明显低于Myodes（79%）。研究结果表明，两种田鼠对低时空复杂性生境的利用效率相似，但对食物分布时空变化生境的利用效率可能存在差异。结果表明，适应特定食物分布的空间能力可能会损害对不同食物分布的栖息地的灵活利用，从而降低物种在高动态环境中的生存机会。
Place learning abilities represent adaptations that contribute also to foraging efficiency under given spatio-temporal conditions. We investigated if this ability in turn constrains decision making in two sympatric vole species: while the herbivorous common vole (Microtus arvalis) feeds on spatio-temporally predictable food resources (e.g. roots, tubers and shoots of plant tubers), the omnivorous bank vole (Myodes glareolus) additionally subsists on temporally unpredictable food resources (e.g. insects and seeds). Here, we compare the spatial reference memory and working memory of the two species. In an automated operant home cage with eight water places, female voles either had to learn the fixed position of non-depletable places (reference memory task) or learn and avoid previously visited water places depleted in a single visit (win-shift task). In the reference memory task, Microtus females required significantly more choices to find all water places, initially performed slightly worse than Myodes females, and displayed slightly lower asymptotic performance. Both species were highly similar in new learning of the same task. In the more complex win-shift task, asymptotic performance was significantly lower in Microtus (72% correct) than in Myodes (79%). Our results suggest that both vole species resemble each other in their efficiency to exploit habitats with low spatio-temporal complexity but may differ in their efficiency at exploiting habitats with temporally changing spatial food distributions. The results imply that spatial ability adjusted to specific food distributions may impair flexible use of habitats that differ in their food distribution and therefore, decrease a species' chances of survival in highly dynamic environments.