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根田鼠母体捕食应激对其子代运动及探究行为的作用

吴 雁,边疆晖, 刘季科   

  1. 杭州师范学院生命科学学院,杭州
  • 出版日期:2006-08-31 发布日期:2008-07-07

Effects of predator-induced maternal stress on offspring's locomotor activity and exploring behavior in root voles

WU Yan,BIAN Jianghui,LIU Jike4   

  • Online:2006-08-31 Published:2008-07-07

摘要: 本文研究了根田鼠母体捕食应激对其子代运动及探究行为的作用。母体自妊娠中期至分娩期间,每天被短暂且重复地暴露给艾鼬。分娩后,对母体及其子代正常饲养。在子代性成熟后,分别测定其运动和探究行为。母体捕食应激显著降低子代的运动时间和频率。在探究行为中,母体捕食应激子代的探究潜伏期和探究时间均显著大于对照子代;其次,母体捕食应激雌性子代的探究次数显著小于对照。另外,个体的运动水平以及探究潜伏期和探究次数均存在性别差异。本研究结果表明,田鼠类母体捕食应激对其子代运动和探究行为有显著的抑制作用,由此可能对子代适合度,乃至种群波动产生负效应。

关键词: 根田鼠, 母体捕食应激, 子代, 运动, 探究行为

Abstract: This study compared locomotor activity and exploring behavior of offspring from mothers stressed by predator with those from non-stressed mothers in root voles (Microtus oeconomus). Pregnant mothers were exposed to a predator at 9-11 days of pregnancy by placing cages housing this mothers away 200 cm a cage housing the steppe polecat until confinement Their offspring then were housed under standardized laboratory conditions. At adulthood, we measured locomotor activity and exploring behavior with laboratory made test-boxes, respectively. In locomotor activity, offspring from stressed mothers spent less time on locomotor activity and had lower activity frequency than offspring from non-stressed mothers. In exploring behavior, offspring from stressed mothers had higher exploring latency and longer exploring time compared to offspring from non-stressed mothers. Moreover, prenatally stressed female offspring had lower exploring times than control female offspring. Significant sex differences were observed in individual locomotor activity levels and exploring latencies and exploring times. The results in present study indicated that predator-induced maternal stress had adverse effects on offspring locomotor activity and exploring behavior, which may have influence on population dynamics.

Key words: Exploring behavior, Locomotor activity, Offspring, Root voles (Microtus oeconomus)