DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Individual Behavior and Female Associations in Fission-Fusion Equid Societies

本项目研究了生态和社会因素在裂变-聚变有蹄类动物社会中形成社会组织关系中的作用。目前的裂变-聚变社会模型要么侧重于考察个体之间的偏好关联，要么侧重于考察决定群体规模的因素及其与群体规模变化的相关性。个人关系仍然没有完全被理解。一种新的分析个体关系的模型被用来分析个体之间的关联规则，该模型将关键的生态和社会驱动因素(即饲料、水、捕食者和单身雄性)与女性的内部状态结合在一起。还探讨了这些个体决策对种群水平关联和分散模式的影响。从这个框架得出的预测将使用四个地点的两种濒危马匹：灰斑马(Equus Grevyi)和亚洲野驴(Equus Hemion)的生态和行为数据进行验证。这两个物种具有相似的形态、生理和社会制度。这四个地点提供了生态和社会因素的自然变化，是探索我们模型预测的理想系统。这项研究的更广泛的影响包括为普通公众、学生和森林管理者开展关于生态和行为数据价值的教育活动，以及改进濒危马匹的保护战略。

Project SummaryThis project studies the role of ecological and social factors in shaping socialorganizing relationships in fission-fusion ungulate societies. Current models of fission-fusion societies focus either on examining preferential associations between individualsor on examining factors that determine group size and its correlation with group sizevariations. Individual relationships are still not completely understood. A novel model foranalyzing individual relationships incorporating key ecological and social drivers (i.e.forage, water, predators and bachelor males) together with female internal state is used topredict rules for associations between individuals. The consequences of these individualdecisions for population level association and dispersion patterns are also explored. Thepredictions derived from this framework will be tested using ecological and behavioraldata from two endangered Equids: Grevys zebra (Equus grevyi) and Asiatic Wild Asses(Equus hemionus) at four sites. Both species have similar morphology, physiology andsocial systems. The four sites provide natural variation in ecological and social factorsand serve as an ideal system for exploring the predictions of our model. The broaderimpacts of the study include educational activities about the value of ecological andbehavioral data for lay public, students and forest managers, and improvement ofconservation strategies for endangered Equids.