Hierarchy and dispersal tendencies in two house mouse subspecies

0374520 - ÚBO 2012 CZ eng A - Abstrakt
Hiadlovská, Zuzana - Rusová, Nikola - Vošlajerová Bímová, Barbora - Macholán, Miloš
Hierarchy and dispersal tendencies in two house mouse subspecies.
Zoologické dny Olomouc 2012: sborník abstraktů z konference 9.-10. února 2012. Brno: Ústav biologie obratlovců AV ČR, 2012 - (Bryja, J.; Albrechtová, J.; Tkadlec, E.). s. 67-68. ISBN 978-80-87189-11-5.
[Zoologické dny. 09.02.2012-10.02.2012, Olomouc]
Grant CEP: GA ČR GA206/08/0640; GA ČR GAP506/11/1792
Výzkumný záměr: CEZ:AV0Z60930519; CEZ:AV0Z50450515
Klíčová slova: house mouse
Kód oboru RIV: EG - Zoologie

In mammals, the males are predominant sex among dispersants. Common explanation is that as they have stricter hierarchy, less-aggressive subordinates emigrate to escape the social pressure (caused by dominant). Another hypothesis states that more aggressive males are “self-confident” or “brave”, explore more and have higher emigration tendencies. In our study we inspect the situation in two house mouse subspecies Mus musculus musculus and M. m. domesticus. We examin the impact of social rank on exploration and dispersal tendencies of male mice. In total, 40 males of two inbred strains were tested (20 males per strain). M. m. domesticus was represented by STRA and M. m. musculus by BUSNA strain, respectively. Males were raised in fraternal pairs, i.e. brothers were kept together in a single cage. Ontogeny of the tested males was recorded so that their social rank (dominant /subordinate) was known when tested. In 90–94 days, individual exploration activity was evaluated by the Open Field test. Five days later, each pair was released to oval arena for 12 hr. Emigration from arena was available through crossing a water pool. This way dispersal tendency was observed. The effect of social rank was revealed in the STRA strain only. Here, dominant brother show lower risk-assessment when exploring. In the dispersal test, one of the STRA males used to emigrate, while this situation was virtually absent in BUSNA. As M. m. domesticus is known to be more aggressive, it has probably a stricter hierarchy. The behaviour observed during the STRA fraternal pairs (domesticus-derived) ontogeny suggests the same. It seems that only in STRA the strict hierarchy has an impact on exploration and dispersal profiles. Interestingly, our results support the “aggressive-brave-dispersing” hypothesis rather than “aggressive-territorial-sedentary” hypothesis.
Trvalý link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0207425