Roles of Perception and Spatial Memory in Competitive Mate Searching

在许多哺乳动物物种中，雄性为了获得交配对象而进行身体上的竞争，在战斗中具有优势的特征受到青睐。然而，在其他物种中，雄性很少进行攻击性的互动，然而一些个体仍然比其他个体获得更多的配偶。施瓦格迈耶博士将对属于第二种类型的物种进行研究。她将研究在一个侵略和战斗起着微不足道作用的交配系统中，对男性繁殖成功的潜在重要性的特征。在之前对十三纹地松鼠的研究中，施瓦格迈耶博士发现，正在繁殖的雄性地松鼠大部分时间都在寻找具有交配能力的雌性地松鼠。通常，雄性获得的配偶数量正好等于它找到的具有交配意向的雌性的数量；因此，雄性寻找雌性的能力是决定其繁殖成功与否的关键。施瓦格迈耶博士将进行一项分为三个阶段的实地研究，以研究雄性是如何在雌性的4到5个小时内找到雌性的。这项研究将包括(1)监测男性与女性的接触，以确定男性是否可以“预测”某个特定女性何时会成为性伴侣；(2)暂时将女性移走，以评估男性是否记得他们前几天遇到的女性的地理位置；(3)观察男性记住女性位置的能力。并学习其他空间任务，影响它们的交配成功。本研究项目是交配系统行为生态学与空间学习记忆实验心理学的独特结合。因此，除了重要和新颖的具体发现外，这项工作还为这两个科学领域提供了新的视角。

In many species of mammals, males compete physically for access to mating partners, and traits that confer an advantage in fighting are favored. In other species, however, males seldom interact aggressively, yet some individuals still acquire more mates than others. Dr. Schwagmeyer will conduct research on a species belonging to this second type. She will investigate features of potential importance to male reproductive success in a mating system in which aggression and combat play trivial roles. In previous research on thirteen-lined ground squirrels, Dr. Schwagmeyer found that breeding males spend most of their time simply searching for sexually receptive females. Usually the number of mates that a male acquires is exactly equal to the number of sexually receptive females that he finds; thus, a male's skill in finding females is critical in determining his reproductive success. Dr. Schwagmeyer will carry out a three- phase field study to examine how males actually locate a female during the 4 to 5 hours that she is sexually receptive. The study will involve (1) monitoring male visits with females to determine if males can "predict" when a particular female will become sexually available, (2) temporarily removing females to assess whether or not males remember the geographic locations of females they have encountered on previous days, and (3) observing how males' abilities to remember the locations of females, and to learn other spatial tasks, influence their mating success. This research project represents a unique combination of the behavioral ecology of mating systems with the experimental psychology of spatial learning and memory. Thus, in addition to important and novel specific findings, the work offers new perspectives for both fields of science.