Mechanisms of Social Recognition in Belding's Ground Squirrels

Mateo 9808704许多物种，包括人类，都可以根据遗传关系区分不同的个体。然而，这种亲属识别是如何实现的，在很大程度上仍未得到探索。贝丁氏精灵是群居松鼠，表现出许多形式的裙带关系(针对亲属的偏袒)，包括领土防御和躲避捕食者，这需要识别亲属的能力。这些研究将确定该物种如何利用气味进行识别，检查亲属辨别的限度，并描述基于亲属的气味和亲属识别的发展。气味的产生和感知将通过对圈养的伯定木进行受控气味呈现来研究，这些结果将得到对自由生活动物的观察的补充。当这些研究完成时，伯定木将是我们第一批彻底理解基于亲属关系的偏爱的生物之一，这种偏爱跨越了对亲属识别的机械和进化解释。这一结果也适用于其他面临灭绝威胁的物种，因为了解个体如何利用空间并与嗅觉线索沟通可能对维持或重新安置种群至关重要。最后，亲属识别研究可能会揭示试图在进化框架中解释人类行为的科学家之间的争议；也就是说，人类如何以及为什么要宣传或隐瞒自己与他人的关系。

Mateo 9808704Many species, including humans, can discriminate among individuals according to genetic relatedness. Yet how this kin recognition is accomplished remains largely unexplored. Spermophilus beldingi are group-living squirrels that exhibit many forms of nepotism (favoritism directed at kin), including territory defense and predator avoidance, which require the ability to identify relatives. These studies will determine how this species uses odors for recognition, examine the limits of kin discrimination, and describe the development of both kin-based odors and kin recognition. Odor production and perception will be studied with controlled odor presentations to captive S. beldingi, and these results will be complemented by observations of free-living animals.When these studies are completed, S. beldingi will be one of the first organisms for which we have a thorough understanding of favoritism based on kinship that spans both mechanistic and evolutionary explanations for kin recognition. The results can be applied to other species that are threatened with extinction, as an understanding of how individuals use space and communicate with olfactory cues may be critical to the maintenance or relocation of populations. Finally, kin-recognition research may shed light on controversies among scientists who attempt to explain human behavior in an evolutionary framework; namely, how and why humans would either advertise or conceal their relatedness to others.