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

本项目研究生态和社会因素在形成裂变融合有蹄类社会中社会组织关系中的作用。当前的裂变融合社会模型要么关注于研究个体之间的偏好联系，要么关注于研究决定群体规模的因素及其与群体规模变化的相关性。个体间的关系仍未被完全理解。一个新的分析个体关系的模型结合了关键的生态和社会驱动因素（如饲料、水、捕食者和单身雄性）以及雌性的内部状态来预测个体之间的关联规则。本文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。从这个框架中得出的预测将在四个地点使用两种濒危马科动物的生态和行为数据进行测试：灰斑马（Equus grevyi）和亚洲野生驴（Equus hemionus）。这两个物种有相似的形态、生理和社会系统。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。该研究的广泛影响包括对公众、学生和森林管理者进行有关生态和行为数据价值的教育活动，以及改进濒危马科动物的保护策略。

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.