A Study of the Behavioural Modification of the House Musk Shrew in the Process of Domestication

驯化是指动物在摆脱自然选择压力后，通过连续几代人工繁殖的行为。对其影响的研究与行为的进化有关，因为它们为我们提供了关于一种行为模式如何在增加其物种变异的同时变得特定的基本信息。这种方法在行为学研究中的意义更大，因为进化过程不能用化石遗骸来复制。根据近交系小鼠的品系差异（Tsuji & Ebihara,1980; Tsuji et al.,1982），提出以下假设：驯化动物的适应受到遗传和环境双重因素的压力。被视为应变特征的基本行为特征是这些控制力的结果。不同的菌株具有不同的模式，这些模式最初是作为该物种野生动物的潜在模式而固有的……更多的是为了应对它们的环境。这个假设必须通过人工饲养野生动物来验证。考虑到其系统发育状态，使用麝香鼩（Suncus murinus）。自1980年以来，为了我们的研究目的，我们驯养了这种野生动物。这些动物最初是在冲绳的Tarama岛捕获的，并被运送到我们的实验室，在那里它们在封闭的群体中通过非近亲交配繁殖。观察到两种基本具有适应意义的行为；一个是露营，另一个是性行为。此外，活动节奏被记录和分析。迄今为止，我们已经驯化了三代塔拉玛系野生动物，并收集了上述目标行为的数据。虽然驯化的影响尚未得到详细阐述，但已经驯化的动物的行为数据已通过实验室观察成功收集。他们的旅行和性行为以及他们的活动节奏都有详细的描述。建立可靠的育种程序是我们迫切需要的任务，以便我们能够为驯化的早期阶段积累足够的目标行为数据。少

Domestication is the operation by which animals are artificially bred through successive generations after having been freed from the natural selection pressure. Investigations of its effect are concerned with the evolution of behaviour, as they provide us with basic informations on how a behaviour pattern becomes specified while increasing its variation within species. Significance of this approach is greater in the behavioural studies, since evolutionary processes cannot be reproduced with fossil remains.Based on the fact of strain differences obtained with inbred mice (Tsuji & Ebihara,1980; Tsuji et al.,1982), the following hypothesis is proposed: Domesticated animals have been pressed for their adaptation by twofold factors, genetic and environmental. A basic trait of behaviour seen as the strain character is an outcome of these controlling forces. Different strains have specified different patterns, which are originally built-in as the potential modes of wild animals of the specie … More s in coping with their environment. This hypothesis must be tested by breeding wild animals artificially.The house musk shrew (Suncus murinus) is used considering its phylogenetic status. Since 1980 we have domesticated wild animals of this species for our research purpose. The animals were originally captured in Tarama Island, Okinawa, and were transported to our laboratory, where they have been bred by non-sib mating in the closed colony.Two behaviours of the basicly adaptive significance are observed; one is the caravaning and the other is the sexual behaviour. Additionally, activity rhythms are recorded and analyzed.We have so far domesticated wild animals of the Tarama line for three generations and have collected data on the target behaviours mentioned above. Although the effect of domestication has not been elaborated yet, data on the behaviours of the already domesticated animals have been successfully collected by the laboratory observations. Their caravaning and sexual behaviours have been described in detail as well as their activity rhythms.It is our task of immediate necessity to establish reliable breeding procedure, in order that we can accumulate sufficient amount of data on the target behaviours for the early stage of domestication. Less