Behavioral Diversity and Ontogeny

爬行动物被认为是解决行为发展问题的优秀模型物种。他们有很好的记录行为模式，这是理想的个体发生研究。幼蛇是早熟的，没有父母的帮助，因此他们必须从出生开始自己照顾自己。幼崽通常很大——60只或更多——许多幼崽无法存活繁殖。因此，通过遗传决定的行为机制和/或快速学习或其他发展机制进行适应性反应是有价值的。目前的研究将集中在几个问题上。首先，在同一母亲所生的个体蛇中发现了大量的多样性，但对个体差异背后的原因知之甚少。幼崽之间在喂养、社交和防御行为方面有很大的影响，但不清楚这些是由环境还是基因决定的。这种多样性可能是由于即使是幼崽也有不同的父亲。仔细的行为观察将使我们对这些问题得出一些结论。蛇也是陆地脊椎动物中，作为一个群体，在其行为的几乎所有方面都完全依赖化学感官。蛇的社会群体与通过化学线索传递食物来源信息有关的可能性将被研究。这些数据将有助于澄清化学线索的作用及其作用机制。因此，本研究项目将研究行为、激素和遗传因素，这些因素是该物种表现出的适应和行为发展的基础。

Reptiles are becoming recognized as an excellent model species for approaching questions in behavioral development. They have well documented behavioral patterns, which are ideal for ontogenetic study. Baby snakes are precocious, with no help from the parents, thus they have to fend for themselves from birth. Litters are often large--60 or more--and many do not survive to reproduce. There is thus a premium on performing adaptive responses via genetically determined behavioral mechanisms and/or rapid learning or other developmental mechanisms. The present research will focus on several issues. First, there is a large amount of diversity found among individual snakes born to the same mother, yet little is known about the reasons underlying the individual variability. Large effects are seen between litters in feeding, social, and defensive behaviors, but it is not clear if these are due to environmental or genetically determined traits. The diversity may be due to different fathers even for litter mates. Careful behavioral observations will allow some conclusions to be drawn regarding these questions. Snakes are also the land vertebrates with the most complete reliance, as a group, on the chemical senses in virtually all aspects of their behavior. The possibility that social grouping in snakes is related to the transmission of information about food sources via chemical cues will be examined. Such data will allow clarification of the role of chemical cues and the mechanisms through which they act. Therefore, this research project will address behavioral, hormonal and genetic factors that underly the adaptations and behavioral development exhibited by this species.