Ground squirrel sociality: life history, communication and cognition

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Communication among group-living animals coordinates group activities, enhancing survival and reproductive success. My research explores how animals communicate, the cognitive abilities that have evolved as a result of encoding, decoding and processing information, and how social aspects of group living affect survival and reproduction. With the goal of understanding the mechanisms that contribute to the evolution and maintenance of sociality, I study a wide range of animal species, though my current proposal focuses on ground-dwelling squirrels because they are abundant, convenient to work with, and vary from asocial to highly social species. My students and I will perform field studies building on my lab's recent finding that wave-like jump-yip displays of black-tailed prairie dogs test neighbours' awareness to determine if variability in colony member's responses in different directions provides information about where danger exists. We will also explore how the jump and the accompanying yip-call within that display contribute to the information individuals extract from neighbours. Similar field experiments on Richardson's ground squirrels (RGS) will determine what information is conveyed by tail flicks accompanying repeated alarm calls, explore how call recipients integrate information from multiple callers to track predator movements, and test whether RGS experience perceptual illusions. We will also investigate why RGS alarm calls vary so extensively in pitch and timing, and determine the function of ultrasonic alarm calls. Ongoing research will document the physiological mechanisms that promote cooperation and alarm calling, and those that translate social and predator-induced stress into changes in the number and sex of offspring produced. Fieldwork on Franklin's ground squirrels, will explore how relatedness affects mate choice, patterns of nest dispersion and space use, including newly discovered long-range nest relocations and adoptions of young, thus testing whether kin recognition promotes nepotism or inbreeding avoidance.*** ***Overall my research provides important insights into how sociality evolved, how communication and cognitive abilities contribute to societal cooperation, and how societal pressures promote physiological changes that lead to variation in survival and reproduction. The proposed research contributes to our fundamental knowledge of how animal societies function, and to a more balanced approach to pest control and conservation.**