中华菊头蝠社会等级的形成及决定因素研究

社会等级是同种动物个体间为缓解竞争压力、优化资源分配和维持社群稳定而形成的一种社会地位差异，一直被视为生态学、保护生物学和神经生理学等研究领域的热点。先前研究检验了动物身体属性、个性、优先居住效应、胜利或失败的打斗经历对个体社会等级的影响，但极少同时验证这四类因素的作用，无法量化各因素的相对重要性，且对具有极高物种多样性的蝙蝠鲜有关注。这将导致研究结果的片面性和不完整性。本项目以中华菊头蝠为研究对象，人工构建蝙蝠集群，量化社会等级形成过程中各类参数的变化，旨在阐明蝙蝠社会等级的形成过程和结构。另外，通过匹配-配对实验和三元组实验揭示影响中华菊头蝠社会等级的因素及其相对重要性。项目结果对全面解析动物社会等级，以及深入理解动物社群结构的形成和发展具有深远意义，也是对受较少关注的蝙蝠社会行为研究的重要补充，可为蝙蝠物种多样性保育提供理论指导。

Social hierarchy can be understood as a social status differences among individuals within a species, which aim is to reduce competitive pressure, optimize resource allocation and maintain the stability of animal community. Social hierarchy in animals is always a hot topic in ecology, conservation biology, neurophysiology and so on. Previous researches investigate the role of physical attributes, personality, prior residency effects and fighting experience in predicting social hierarchy. However, few studies have focused synthetically the four factors, and little information is available regarding the social hierarchy in bats. These, however, lead to our limited understanding on social hierarchy. Here, we use Rhinolophus sinicus as a model to investigate the formation and determinants of social hierarchy in bats. We aim to clarify the formation process and structure of social hierarchy by establishing the groups of Rhinolophus sinicus artificially, and quantifying the variation of various parameters over time. We also determine the relative strength of different factors influencing the establishment of dominance hierarchies by conducting matched-paired trials and triad trials. These results are important to comprehensively elucidate social hierarchy in animals, and deeply understand the formation and development of animal community, and broaden the studies about bat social behavior, also provide a theoretical guide for the conservation of bat species diversity.