LTREB: Integrated Study of Behavioral and Morphological Development in Free-Living Carnivores

LTREB：自由生活食肉动物行为和形态发育的综合研究Proposal#IBN0113170 Kay E.HolekampBarbara L.LundriganKim T.Scribner斑点鬣狗(Crocuta Crocuta)是一种长寿、群居的食肉动物，表现出一套独特的行为、内分泌和形态特征。自1988年以来，霍勒坎普博士及其同事一直在研究肯尼亚一个大型斑点鬣狗种群成员的行为生态学，主要关注社会行为的发展。年龄、性别、亲属关系和社会地位对研究种群中所有出生的动物都是已知的，而社会史对所有13岁以下的鬣狗都是已知的。大多数成年氏族成员，无论男女，都戴着无线电项圈，这样他们就可以定期定位和观察。拟议的LTREB项目将支持对这一研究群体进行长期研究的新方面。具体地说，霍勒坎普博士将与形态测量学家(伦德里根博士)和遗传学家(斯克里布纳博士)联手实现三个新目标。(1)首先，将使用一种新的行为学和形态计量学技术相结合的方法来研究摄食器具的形态、饮食、摄食行为和摄食性能随年龄的变化。拟议工作的这一部分将包括记录与年龄有关的咀嚼、觅食、摄食行为和饮食的变化(带有新的和存档的数据)；在现场进行简单的性能测试以评估每个年龄的最大摄食能力；以及对与年龄有关的头骨形态变化进行量化分析。(2)第二个目标是开始监测第二个斑点鬣狗种群(较少接触人类的种群)的行为、生长和人口学，以询问年龄相关的对觅食能力的限制是否会使某些年龄性别类别的鬣狗比其他年龄性别类别的鬣狗更容易受到人为干扰的影响。(3)最后，在两个鬣狗种群中，遗传标记结合行为数据将被用来阐明对人为干扰的行为反应与与这种干扰相关的适合度下降之间的关系。这项拟议的工作将对鬣狗在生活的每个阶段所面临的自然和人为选择压力提供相当大的帮助。它还将结合几种不同的数据类型，所有这些数据类型都是在自然生态和进化背景下收集的，以整合传统上分离的方法来研究生活史进化。这一结果不仅对理解斑点鬣狗表现出的一系列独特特征很重要，而且更广泛地说，对于理解与年龄相关的限制在行为进化中的作用也是重要的。利用两个不同的鬣狗研究种群的数据，将有可能同时量化人为干扰对行为和健康的影响，识别可能导致种群差异的生态变量，并评估这些变量对不同年龄、性别和等级类别动物的相对影响。这是一个独特的机会，可以记录行为变化对人类活动的适应性后果。希望这项拟议的工作将为理解其他哺乳动物的行为、形态、适应性、人口学和人类干扰之间的复杂关系提供一个模型，包括那些稀有和濒危的食肉动物。

LTREB: Integrated study of behavioral and morphological development in free-living carnivoresProposal #IBN0113170Kay E. HolekampBarbara L. LundriganKim T. ScribnerSpotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) are long-lived, gregarious carnivores exhibiting a unique suite of behavioral, endocrine, and morphological characteristics. Since 1988, Dr. Holekamp and associates have been studying the behavioral ecology of members of one large spotted hyena population in Kenya, focusing mainly on the development of social behavior. Age, sex, kin relations, and social status are known for all natal animals in the study population, and social histories are known for all hyenas under 13 years of age. Most adult clan members of both sexes wear radio collars so they can be regularly located and observed. The proposed LTREB project will support new aspects of long-term research with this study population. Specifically, Dr. Holekamp will join forces with a morphometrician (Dr. Lundrigan) and a geneticist (Dr. Scribner) to achieve three new goals. (1) First, a novel combination of behavioral and morphometric techniques will be used to examine age-related changes in morphology of the feeding apparatus, diet, feeding behavior, and feeding performance. This portion of the proposed work will include documentation (with new and archived data) of age-related change in chewing, foraging, feeding behavior, and diet; administration of simple performance tests in the field to assess maximal feeding capabilities at each age; and quantitative analysis of age-related changes in skull morphology. (2) The second goal is to start monitoring behavior, growth, and demography in a second spotted hyena population (one less exposed to humans) to inquire whether age-related constraints on foraging abilities might make certain age-sex classes of hyenas more vulnerable than others to effects of anthropogenic disturbance. (3) Finally, in both hyena populations, genetic markers, in conjunction with behavioral data, will be used to elucidate the relationship between behavioral responses to anthropogenic disturbance and fitness decrements associated with such disturbance. The proposed work will shed considerable light on the natural and anthropogenic selection pressures acting on hyenas during each stage of life. It will also combine several different data types, all collected in a natural ecological and evolutionary context, to integrate traditionally disjunct approaches to the study of life history evolution. The results should be important not only for understanding the unique suite of traits expressed by spotted hyenas, but more generally, for understanding the role of age-related constraints in the evolution of behavior. With the data from the two different hyena study populations, it will be possible to quantify the effects of anthropogenic disturbance concurrently on both behavior and fitness, identify ecological variables that might be responsible for population differences, and assess the relative effects of these variables on animals in different age, sex, and rank classes. This is a unique opportunity to document the adaptive consequences of behavioral change in response to human activity. It is hoped that the proposed work will serve as a model for understanding the complex relationships among behavior, morphology, fitness, demography, and human disturbance in other mammalian carnivores, including those that are rare and endangered.