Ecology and social behaviour of Mongolian gerbils,Meriones unguiculatus, at Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia, China

̊gren, G. A; Zhou, Qianxiong; Zhong, Wenqin

doi:10.1016/0003-3472(89)90002-x

Cited by 170 publications

(130 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Mongolian gerbils are small, quadrupedal rodents native to open grasslands and sandy deserts in central Asia, sheltering in burrows but foraging and performing other activities above ground (Naumov and Lobachev, 1975;Ågren et al, 1989). They show no obvious morphological specialization for sprinting, distance running, or digging and appear to be locomotor generalists.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships among running performance, aerobic physiology and organ mass in male Mongolian gerbils

Chappell

Garland

Robertson

et al. 2007

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARY Relationships among individual variation in exercise capacity, resting metabolism and morphology may offer insights into the mechanistic basis of whole-animal performance, including possible performance trade-offs (e.g. burst versus sustainable exercise, resting `maintenance' costs versus maximal power output). Although there have been several studies of correlations between performance, metabolism and morphology in fish, birds and squamate reptiles, relatively little work has been done with mammals. We measured several aspects of forced and voluntary locomotor performance in Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus), along with minimal and maximal aerobic metabolic rates and organ sizes (mainly visceral organs and the musculoskeletal system). Maximal sprint and aerobic speeds and maximal oxygen consumption(V̇O2max) during forced exercise were similar to those of other small rodents; basal metabolic rate was below allometric predictions. At all tested speeds, voluntary running had a lower energy cost than forced treadmill running, due primarily to a higher zero-speed intercept of the speed-versus-power (oxygen consumption) relationship during forced running. Incremental costs of transport (slopes of speed-versus-power regressions) were slightly higher during voluntary exercise. Few of the correlations among performance variables, or between performance and organ morphology, were statistically significant. These results are consistent with many other studies that found weak correlations between organismal performance (e.g. V̇O2max) and putatively relevant subordinate traits, thus supporting the idea that some components within a functional system may exhibit excess capacity at various points in the evolutionary history of a population, while others constitute limiting factors.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships among running performance, aerobic physiology and organ mass in male Mongolian gerbils

Chappell

Garland

Robertson

et al. 2007

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…The absence of a fleeing response by several animals is probably not because they did not perceive the threat as an actual predator. Responses to this overhead predator have been examined in previous studies and their responses are similar to those that gerbils make to actual aerial predators, such as falcons and other predators found in natural habitats (Ellard, 1996;Agren, et al, 1989). In the past, gerbils have responded to this simulated aerial predator by making maneuvers that take into account the trajectory of the stimulus and the locations of refuges (Ellard, 1996).…”

Section: Refuge Visitedmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Gerbils live in burrow systems with multiple entrances in their natural habitat (Clark & Bennett, 1979;Ellard, 1993;Agren, et al, 1989). A typical social group of gerbils consists of a collection of 15-20 burrow entrances in which they spend most of their time.…”

Section: Rationale For the Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional analysis of concealment: A novel application of prospect and refuge theory

Singh

Ellard

2012

Behavioural Processes

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According to prospect-refuge theory, humans prefer to be in spaces that afford protection from threat (refuge), but also provide large fields of view (prospect). These preferences are said to arise from the adaptive advantages of such locations with respect to both avoidance of predation from refuge and survey of opportunities for resource collection by prospect. Prospect-refuge theory in the past has traditionally only been applied to human beings, but many of the same contingencies governing spatial preference ought to also hold true in other animals. If people's spatial preferences are influenced by prospect-refuge considerations, then such preferences ought to be found in other animals that are subject to the same pressures to find safety and resources. The overall objective of this study was to explore spatial preferences of the Mongolian gerbil in situations in which prospect-refuge theory makes specific predictions about which regions of an environment will be preferred. Gerbils were placed in an arena containing three dome shaped refuges that varied in the amount of prospect and refuge. A predator was released during the trial to examine how contextual factors may influence the degree of prospect and refuge preferred. There was a preference for an enclosed refuge at stimulus onset even though this was not reflective of what happened prior to stimulus onset, which suggests there was a shift in preferring refuges with greater concealment upon exposure to a threatening stimulus. These results indicate that shelter preference does in fact depend on contextual factors.An explicit comparison of these preferences in widely divergent species may help to place theories of spatial preference on a firmer biological footing, and may provide a greater understanding of how the principles of spatial cognition might underpin parts of the design process.iv Acknowledgments

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“…Among rodents, many marmots (Armitage 1981;Arnold 1990a, b), both castor species (Svendsen 1980;Dezhkin et al 1986), muskrat (Proulx and Gilbert 1983), some voles and gerbils (Ågren et al 1989;Carter and Getz 1993;Smorkatcheva 2003;Gromov 2003Gromov , 2007 are considered social ones like many others (Gromov 2008), and all of them live in family groups and exhibit nest cohabitation, cooperation in different activities, and biparental care of young. Thus, evolution towards sociality in rodents could be imagined as a pathway to family-group mode of life, or, in other words, a progressive evolutionary transformation of the SEPS of Type I into Type IV.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pair-bonding and parental care in cricetid rodents: a comparative study

Gromov

2010

Acta Theriol

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The cricetid rodents (hamsters, voles, and gerbils) show substantial inter-specific variation in their social organization, mating strategies, and patterns of social behavior, including parental care. In the present study, behaviors related to pair-bonding and parental activities were evaluated in male-female pairs of six cricetid species (Cricetulus migratorius Pallas, 1773, Clethrionomys rutilus Pallas, 1779, Microtus arvalis Pallas, 1778, Microtus socialis Pallas, 1773, Lasiopodomys brandti Radde, 1852, and Meriones unguiculatus Milne-Edwards, 1867) observed under laboratory conditions. These species were chosen due to particular differences in their mating strategies and the spatial-and-ethological population structure (Types I-IV). The results of the study show that there is a pronounced tendency towards both reinforcement of pair-bonds and increasing rate of direct parental care, especially paternal one, when solitary or gregarious species (Types I and II-C. migratorius and C. rutilus) are compared with the ones living in family groups (Type III-M. arvalis and M. socialis and Type IV-L. brandti and M. unguiculatus). Parental investment of males is mainly related to additional tactile stimulation of infants. A high level of tactile stimulation of pups promotes an increase in subsequent paternal care and reinforcement of pair-bonding, and, conversely, a deficit of tactile stimulation negatively affects the development of paternal behavior and social relationships. Thus, tactile stimulation can be regarded as one of the proximate mechanisms of socialization that plays an essential role in the evolution of sociality, i.e., transition to a family-group mode of life in rodents.

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Ecology and social behaviour of Mongolian gerbils,Meriones unguiculatus, at Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia, China

Cited by 170 publications

References 19 publications

Relationships among running performance, aerobic physiology and organ mass in male Mongolian gerbils

Relationships among running performance, aerobic physiology and organ mass in male Mongolian gerbils

Functional analysis of concealment: A novel application of prospect and refuge theory

Pair-bonding and parental care in cricetid rodents: a comparative study

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