Behavioral Diversity and Ontogeny

爬行动物正在被公认为是解决行为发育问题的优秀模式物种。它们有很好的记录的行为模式，这是个体遗传学研究的理想选择。小蛇是早熟的，没有父母的帮助，所以它们从出生就不得不照顾自己。幼崽通常很大--60只或更多--而且许多不能存活下来繁殖。因此，通过遗传决定的行为机制和/或快速学习或其他发育机制进行适应性反应是有价值的。本研究将集中在几个问题上。首先，在同一母亲所生的个体蛇之间发现了大量的多样性，但人们对个体差异背后的原因知之甚少。幼崽之间在觅食、社交和防御行为上有很大的影响，但目前还不清楚这些是由于环境还是遗传决定的特征。这种差异可能是由于不同的父亲，即使是对幼崽来说也是如此。仔细的行为观察将使我们能够就这些问题得出一些结论。蛇也是陆地脊椎动物中最完全依赖化学感官的一个群体，它们的行为几乎在所有方面都是如此。我们将研究蛇的群居与通过化学线索传递有关食物来源的信息有关的可能性。这些数据将有助于澄清化学线索的作用及其作用机制。因此，这项研究项目将解决行为、激素和遗传因素，这些因素是该物种表现出的适应和行为发展的基础。

Reptiles are becoming recognized as an excellent model species for approaching questions in behavioral development. They have well documented behavioral patterns, which are ideal for ontogenetic study. Baby snakes are precocious, with no help from the parents, thus they have to fend for themselves from birth. Litters are often large--60 or more--and many do not survive to reproduce. There is thus a premium on performing adaptive responses via genetically determined behavioral mechanisms and/or rapid learning or other developmental mechanisms. The present research will focus on several issues. First, there is a large amount of diversity found among individual snakes born to the same mother, yet little is known about the reasons underlying the individual variability. Large effects are seen between litters in feeding, social, and defensive behaviors, but it is not clear if these are due to environmental or genetically determined traits. The diversity may be due to different fathers even for litter mates. Careful behavioral observations will allow some conclusions to be drawn regarding these questions. Snakes are also the land vertebrates with the most complete reliance, as a group, on the chemical senses in virtually all aspects of their behavior. The possibility that social grouping in snakes is related to the transmission of information about food sources via chemical cues will be examined. Such data will allow clarification of the role of chemical cues and the mechanisms through which they act. Therefore, this research project will address behavioral, hormonal and genetic factors that underly the adaptations and behavioral development exhibited by this species.