Measuring Docility, Boldness, and Exploration in the Free-Living Yellow Ground Squirrel Spermophilus fulvus Licht. (Sciuridae)статья
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Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 24 июля 2024 г.
Аннотация:Studying intraspecific variation in animal behavior is one of the key trends in recent biology. Com-parative behavioral studies of different species require developing an adequate methodology for every newspecies. We performed three types of behavioral tests with juveniles of the yellow ground squirrel, a largehibernating rodent. Docility tests with an estimation of the time and intensity of the animal locomotor activityin a bag showed low repeatability and appeared to be inappropriate for this species since most of the pupsdemonstrated freezing behavior. Boldness tests with an action camera installed near the squirrel’s burrowwere more promising, but the juveniles still did not emerge aboveground for a long time after they escaped totheir burrows, remained vigilant, and did not explore the new object. Test results indicate that yellow groundsquirrels are very shy and cautious, which may be a persistent behavioral trait of this species.