Roles of Perception and Spatial Memory in Competitive Mate Searching

在许多种类的哺乳动物中，雄性为了获得交配伙伴而在身体上竞争，那些在战斗中具有优势的特征受到青睐。然而，在其他物种中，雄性很少有攻击性的互动，但一些个体仍然比其他个体获得更多的配偶。施瓦格迈尔博士将对属于第二种类型的物种进行研究。她将研究在攻击性和战斗起着微不足道作用的交配系统中，对雄性生殖成功具有潜在重要性的特征。施瓦格迈尔博士在之前对13只地松鼠进行的研究中发现，繁殖的雄性松鼠大部分时间只是在寻找接受性行为的雌性松鼠。通常情况下，雄性获得的配偶数量与他找到的接受性行为的雌性数量完全相同；因此，雄性寻找雌性的技能对于决定其繁殖成功至关重要。施瓦格迈尔博士将进行一项分三个阶段的实地研究，考察在雌性接受性行为的4到5个小时内，雄性实际上是如何定位雌性的。这项研究将涉及(1)监测男性与女性的来访，以确定男性是否能够“预测”某一特定女性何时变得可用；(2)暂时移走女性，以评估男性是否记得他们在前几天遇到的女性的地理位置；以及(3)观察男性记住女性位置的能力，并学习其他空间任务，影响它们交配的成功。这个研究项目代表了交配系统的行为生态学与空间学习和记忆的实验心理学的独特结合。因此，除了重要和新颖的具体发现外，这项工作还为这两个科学领域提供了新的视角。

In many species of mammals, males compete physically for access to mating partners, and traits that confer an advantage in fighting are favored. In other species, however, males seldom interact aggressively, yet some individuals still acquire more mates than others. Dr. Schwagmeyer will conduct research on a species belonging to this second type. She will investigate features of potential importance to male reproductive success in a mating system in which aggression and combat play trivial roles. In previous research on thirteen-lined ground squirrels, Dr. Schwagmeyer found that breeding males spend most of their time simply searching for sexually receptive females. Usually the number of mates that a male acquires is exactly equal to the number of sexually receptive females that he finds; thus, a male's skill in finding females is critical in determining his reproductive success. Dr. Schwagmeyer will carry out a three- phase field study to examine how males actually locate a female during the 4 to 5 hours that she is sexually receptive. The study will involve (1) monitoring male visits with females to determine if males can "predict" when a particular female will become sexually available, (2) temporarily removing females to assess whether or not males remember the geographic locations of females they have encountered on previous days, and (3) observing how males' abilities to remember the locations of females, and to learn other spatial tasks, influence their mating success. This research project represents a unique combination of the behavioral ecology of mating systems with the experimental psychology of spatial learning and memory. Thus, in addition to important and novel specific findings, the work offers new perspectives for both fields of science.