RUI: Communication and Predator Defense by Ground- Transmitted Vibration

袋鼠是一种夜间活动的啮齿动物，只在北美的沙漠中发现。尽管它们是美国西南部沙漠丰富的生命网络的一部分，但在兰德尔开始对它们进行研究之前，人们对它们的交流和社会组织知之甚少。她正在继续研究一种物种--旗尾袋鼠--的成员如何与其他物种的袋鼠交流自己的身份，并通过在地面上敲击它们的后脚来创造空气和地面传播的振动来保护自己免受捕食者的伤害。脚鼓是一种独特的交流系统，除了旗尾袋鼠以外，从未在任何其他动物身上详细研究过。在这个项目中，兰德尔博士通过调查横幅尾巴是否可以在地下从一个地区到另一个地区进行交流，开启了将脚鼓作为地震交流的研究。她还将探索敲脚信号的文化传播的可能性：母亲的个体敲脚信号可能是由她们的后代学习的，然后随着幼小动物在新的领地与新邻居建立自己的地位而进行修改。最后，兰德尔博士将比以前更详细地研究袋鼠和蛇之间的交流，重点是在蛇存在的情况下，是否有旗尾脚鼓通过告知它们捕食的机会很低来诱使它们离开。由于大多数关于哺乳动物声音交流的研究都是在高度社会化的物种上进行的，因此本研究为非社会性哺乳动物的声音交流进化提供了重要的比较证据。此外，这项研究将有助于理解脆弱的沙漠生态系统。由于旗尾袋鼠最近在亚利桑那州被列为濒危物种，兰德尔博士的研究可能会在保护工作和恢复项目中变得非常重要，以确保旗尾袋鼠和其他濒危袋鼠物种的生存。

Kangaroo rats are nocturnal rodents found only in the deserts of North America. Although they are part of the rich web of life in the deserts of the Southwestern United States, little was understood about their communication and social organization until Dr. Randall began her research on them. She is continuing to examine how members of one species, the banner-tailed kangaroo rat, communicate their identity to other species of kangaroo rats and protect themselves from predators by drumming their hind feet on the ground to create air-borne and ground-transmitted vibrations. Footdrumming is a unique communication system that has never been studied in detail in any other animal besides the banner-tailed kangaroo rat. In this project, Dr. Randall is opening research into footdrumming as seismic communication by investigating whether or not banner-tails can communicate underground from territory to territory. She will also explore the possibility of cultural transmission of footdrumming signals: Individual footdrumming signatures of mothers are possibly learned by their offspring and then modified as the young animals establish themselves in new territories with new neighbors. Finally, Dr. Randall will examine in much greater detail than before communication between kangaroo rats and snakes, focusing on whether or not banner-tails footdrum in the presence of snakes to induce them to leave by informing them that their chances of predation are low. Because most research on mammalian communication by sound has been done on highly social species, this study provides important comparative evidence for the evolution of sound communication in nonsocial mammals. In addition, the research will contribute to an understanding of fragile desert ecosystems. Because the banner-tailed kangaroo rat was recently listed as an endangered species in Arizona, Dr. Randall's research could become very important in conservation efforts and recovery programs to assure the survival of the banner-tail and other endangered kangaroo-rat species.