Behavioural responses of male woodland dormice (Graphiurus murinus) towards communicatory cues of same-sex conspecifics
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Date
2019
Authors
Maswoba, Sinah
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Abstract
Broadcasting state and actions by means of communicatory cues is essential for mediating different important behaviours such as declaring social status, territory ownership or species or individual identification. The aim of this study was to investigate the behavioural responses of male woodland dormice (Graphiurus murinus) towards communicatory cues of same-sex conspecifics from the same or from different populations. I performed three experiments: 1) Three-chambered paradigm test for sociability and preference, which allows a focal animal to select between stimulus animals on the basis of visual, olfactory, and auditory cues, excluding tactile cues. 2) Acoustic test, which allows dormice to be exposed to auditory, olfactory and visual cues of conspecifics through social dyadic encounters. 3) Olfactory discrimination test, which allows animals to choose between stimulus odours only. Wild-caught dormice were obtained by means of live-trapping in three independent stretches (and therefore dormouse populations) of riverine Combretum forest at the Great Fish River Reserve (Eastern Cape, South Africa). The three-chambered paradigm test revealed that male woodland dormice are able to discriminate between intra-population and inter-population male conspecifics. In my study it seems that recognition is achieved by means of multi-modal communicatory stimuli excluding physical contact of animals. Intra-population encounters showed significantly more affiliative (sitting next to conspecific), exploratory and grooming behaviours. Interpopulation encounters displayed significantly more grooming behaviours only. Acoustic tests showed that all four major acoustic signals recorded for woodland dormice species were emitted in this study. Across both intra-population and inter-population encounters, variation in behaviour correlated with variation in the type of vocalization. Interpopulation dyads significantly vocalized and produced more aggressive (shriek/kecker) sounds, accompanied by aggressive (biting of wire) behaviours, exploratory/avoidance behaviours and sitting and grooming next to conspecifics. Olfactory discrimination tests revealed that male woodland dormice can discriminate between non-scented and scented areas by same-sex conspecifics from different populations. Males in scented tests showed more aggressive and investigative behaviours, while males in unscented tests displayed more exploratory/avoidance behaviours. This study has demonstrated that male woodland dormice
are not tolerant to males from different populations, and communicatory signals play an important role in mediating social interactions.
Description
A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the Faculty of Science at the University of the Witwatersrand, 2019
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Citation
Maswoba, Sinah. (2019) Behavioural responses of male woodland dormice (Graphiurus murinus) towards communicatory cues of same-sex conspecifics. University of the Witwatersrand, https://hdl.handle.net/10539/29299