Social Organization and Task Allocation

裸鼹鼠（Heterocephalus glaber）在群居脊椎动物中占有独特的地位，因为它的行为一方面与合作繁殖的鸟类和哺乳动物相似，另一方面与群居昆虫相似。裸鼹鼠在试图将脊椎动物和无脊椎动物异体亲代养育的发生统一在一个单一的理论和术语伞下，以理解社会进化中外在因素（即生态）、内在因素（亲属关系）和历史因素的相对重要性，并确定动物社会中冲突和合作的直接和最终来源方面发挥着关键作用。然而，由于缺乏信息或存在相互矛盾的结果，关于殖民地内社会组织和任务分配的关键细节，比较行为和进化分析目前停滞不前。P.I.的研究将通过量化5个圈养群体（目前n=126只）鼹鼠在透明洞穴系统中的行为来解决这一需求。将调查四个具体问题：(1)是否存在专门的分散形态，或者假设的分散者实际上是殖民地的捍卫者？(2)洞穴的挖掘主要是由大个体还是小个体，还是大个体和小个体参与，但在洞穴挖掘的不同方面？(3)特定群体成员是否会寻找环境热源，然后将热量传递给巢穴同伴（如生活热水瓶），从而提高整个群体的工作效率？(4)最近发现的觅食招募系统有多精确：侦察兵发现新的食物来源时，是否会给他们留下两极分化的踪迹？侦察兵向潜在的新兵传达有关食物数量、质量、距离和可分割性的信息有多精确？对于每一个问题，直接的、非侵入性的实验和观察将产生对不同假设的强有力的推理检验。总的来说，这项研究将加深我们对地球上最复杂的合作哺乳动物社会之一的个体和群体适应的理解。

9705366 Social Organization and Task Allocation in a Eusocial Mannal The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) occupies a unique place among social vertebrates because of its behavioral similarities to cooperatively breeding birds and mammals on the one hand and eusocial insects on the other. Naked mole- rats are playing a pivotal role in attempts to unite occurrences of alloparental care in vertebrates invertebrates under a single theoretical and terminological umbrella, to understand the relative importance of extrinsic (i.e, ecological), intrinsic (kinship), and historical factors in the evolution of eusociality, and identify proximate and ultimate sources of conflict and cooperation in animal societies. However, comparative behavioral and evolutionary analyses are presently stalled by lack of information, or existence of conflicting results, on key details of intra-colonial social organization and task allocation. The P.I. s research will address this need by quantifying the behavior of mole-rats in 5 captive colonies (n=126 animals, presently) housed in transparent burrow systems. Four specific questions will investigated: (1) Is there a specialized dispersive morph, or are putative dispersers actually colony defenders instead?, (2) Are burrows excavated primarily by large individuals or small individuals, or do large and small individuals participate, but in different aspects of burrow excavation?, (3) Do particular colony members seek environmental heat sources and then transfer heat to nest mates (like living hot water bottles), thereby improving the work efficiency of the entire colony?, and (4) How accurate is the recently- discovered foraging recruitment system: do scouts that find new food sources lay polarized trails to them, and how precisely do the communicate information about food quantity, quality, distance, and divisibility to potential recruits? For each question, straightforward, non-invasive experiments and observations will y ield strong inference tests of alternative hypotheses. Overall, this research will deepen our understanding of individual and group-level adaptations in one of the most remarkably complex, cooperation mammalian societies on earth.