MODIFICATION OF EARLY BEHAVIOUR AND REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOUR IN THE PROCESS OF DOMESTICATION

本研究旨在探讨驯化对食虫目麝香鼩早期和繁殖行为的影响。选择适当的动物种类、时间和后续工作所需的劳动力以及研究人员之间的合作关系是这类研究的必要条件。因此，迄今为止只有少数研究报道。然而，这种方法有望有助于揭示物种内适应行为的变化，并为我们提供与行为进化相关的基本信息。在本项目期间，两次在冲绳岛的Tarama岛捕获野生鼩鼱。捕获的动物被转移到我们的动物实验室进行驯化。然而，我们没有获得足够的数据来分析这一学期的驯化效果，因为驯化不是很成功。我们报告了我们在塔拉玛（1980-1988）收集的9年捕获和实验室繁殖的数据。数据显示，尽管高密度栖息地的面积一直在减少，但野生种群的减少并没有像估计的那样明显。然而，与其他品种相比，来自塔拉玛的野生动物很难繁殖，这使得它的驯化不太成功。在进一步的研究中，饲养条件和饲养程序有待改进。观察了家养鼩鼱的商队行为和交配行为，并描述了这两种行为的基本特征。

this study was to investigate the effect of domestication upon the early and reproductive behaviours of the house musk shrew Suncus murinus of the order Insectivora. Selection of the adequate animal species, time and labour necessary for the follow-up, and cooperative relations among researchiers are condition essential for this sort of studies. Due to this,only a few studies have so far-een reported. However, this line of approach is expected to contribute to disclosing the intraspacies variation of adaptive behaviour and to provide us with the basic information related to the behaviour evolution.Wild shrews were trapped in Tarama Island, Okinawa twice for this project term. The captured animals were transferred to our animal laboratory and bred there for domestication. However, we failed in obtaining the related data enough for the analysis of the domestication effect for this term, because the domestication was not so successful.We reported the data which we had collected for nine years (1980-1988) of our trapping in Tarama and breeding in the laboratory. As the data shows, the wild population has not been decreasion so markedly as was estimated, although the habitat size of high density has been reducing. However, the wild animals from Tarama are hard to breed, as compared with other lines, which has made its domestication less successful. Housing conditions and breeding procedure should be improved in the further study.Caravaning and mating behaviours were observed with the domesticated shrews and basic traits of the two behaviours were described.