Ecology and social behaviour of the Mongolian gerbil: a generalised review

Abstract

The present review provides a compilation of the published data on the ecology and social behaviour of Mongolian gerbils. Behavioural observations in the wild show that the Mongolian gerbil is a diurnal social rodent living in extended family groups. Seasonal breeding is typical of Mongolian gerbils in their natural habitat. Social monogamy seems to be characteristic of the Mongolian gerbil reproductive strategy, which however does not exclude facultative polygyny and promiscuity. A typical feature of the space use system in this species is territoriality. Social relationships in family groups may be defined as a subordination hierarchy. The hierarchy order is primarily determined by the age of the animals and maintained chiefly by the subordinates’ behaviour patterns. The complex social organisation in the Mongolian gerbil is characterised by cooperation in different activities. Cooperation appears to enhance the survival of family groups of this species under the extreme climatic conditions of Central Asia.

Ecology and social behavior of the midday gerbil Meriones meridianus: Insights from long-term research in the wild and seminatural environments

“…The social organization, social structure, and mating system of gerbils are diverse and intriguing, making certain gerbil species ideal for addressing both ecological and behavioral questions [3][4][5][6] . Unfortunately, the relevant information is widely scattered, not always complete, and sometimes conflicting.…”

“…The subfamily Gerbillinae includes about 110 species [7] , but detailed data on population ecology and social behavior have been collected for only a dozen species. Some species are essentially solitary, like Gerbillus perpallidus [8] and Psammomys obesus [9,10] ; others are gregarious, with the formation of relatively stable multi-male-multi-female associations (called breeding colonies; [11] ), like in Gerbillus dasyurus [12,13] , Meriones meridianus [4,14] , Meriones hurrianae [15][16][17][18] , Tatera indica [19,20] , Taterillus pygargus [21] ; for a small number of species, a family-group lifestyle is characteristic, like in Meriones unguiculatus [4,5,22] , M. libycus [4,[23][24][25][26] or Rhombomys opimus [27][28][29] . Diurnal species, like Meriones unguiculatus, M. libycus, Psammomys obesus and Rhombomys opimus are relatively well studied.…”

“…Continuous observations of the gerbils lasted up to four months (from June to September). During the observations, the following behavioral patterns were recorded: (1) peaceful interactions (nasal sniff, anogenital sniff, olfactory investigation), (2) ritualized agonistic interactions (side-way postures, boxing, wrestling), (3) aggressive interactions (attack, chase, fight), and (4) avoidance (an animal turns and moves or runs away from a conspecific before physical contact is made) [4,5] .…”

Unsupervised discovery of family specific vocal usage in the Mongolian gerbil

“…Natural burrows are found in multi-family neighborhoods with strictly enforced territorial boundaries (Scheibler et al, 2006;Ågren et al, 1989a, Ågren et al, 1989b. Like prairie voles, gerbils act cooperatively to hoard food, maintain nests, defend their territory, and care for pups (Elwood, 1975;Gromov, 2021). Therefore, gerbils display a range of rodent-typical behaviors (Hurtado-Parrado et al, 2017), as well as complex family behaviors.…”

Unsupervised discovery of family specific vocal usage in the Mongolian gerbil

“…Natural burrows are found in multi-family neighborhoods with strictly enforced territorial boundaries (Scheibler et al, 2006 ;Ågren et al, 1989a, Ågren et al, 1989b. Like prairie voles, gerbils act cooperatively to hoard food, maintain nests, defend their territory, and care for pups (Elwood, 1975 ;Gromov, 2021 ).…”