Behavioral Ecology of Prairie Dogs

标题：草原犬只的行为生态学。HOOGLANDUtah草原土拨鼠是殖民地，穴居啮齿动物，濒临灭绝。 在布莱斯峡谷国家公园对它们的生态和社会行为进行研究，将有助于保护生物学家为这些稀有动物制定一个恢复计划，生物学家对细节争论不休，但他们都同意个体应该避免极端的近亲繁殖。 然而，犹他州土拨鼠通常与近亲交配，如父母、兄弟姐妹和后代。 长期的研究将考察那些从事极端近亲繁殖的个体的繁殖成功率。虽然杀婴在动物中普遍存在，但频率通常很低，受害者通常与杀手在基因上没有关系。 然而，对于犹他州的土拨鼠来说，杀虫剂影响了27%的幼崽。 此外，雄性经常杀死与其交配的雌性的后代。 研究人员将调查犹他州土拨鼠这些不寻常的杀戮特征的原因。DNA指纹显示了犹他州土拨鼠的一个惊人的结果：雌性通常抚养其他雌性的后代。 研究将调查养育后代的母亲是否会增加自己后代的安全性，使其免受捕杀和捕食。

TITLE: BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY OF PRAIRIE DOGSPRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: JOHN L. HOOGLANDUtah prairie dogs are colonial, burrowing rodents that are in acute danger of extinction. Research on their ecology and social behavior at Bryce Canyon National Park will help conservation biologists to formulate a recovery plan for these rare animals.Biologists argue about the details, but they all agree that individuals should avoid extreme inbreeding. Utah prairie dogs, however, commonly mate with close kin such as parents, siblings and offspring. Long-term research will examine the reproductive success of individuals that engage in extreme inbreeding.Although infanticide is ubiquitous among animals, the frequency is usually low and the victims are usually genetically unrelated to killers. For Utah prairie dogs, however, infanticide affects 27% of litters. Further, males frequently kill the offspring of females with whom they copulated. Research will investigate reasons for these unusual features of infanticide among Utah prairie dogs.DNA- fingerprints indicate a startling result for Utah prairie dogs: females commonly rear the offspring of other females. Research will investigate whether mothers that rear foster offspring increase the safety of their own offspring from both infanticide and predation.