Font Size: a A A

Study On The Relationship Between Spatial Memory And Hoarding Behavior Of Rodents

Posted on:2019-05-11Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:D Y ZhangFull Text:PDF
GTID:2370330545967907Subject:Ecology
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Rodents in forests usually have seed hoarding behavior to ensure adequate food in case of food shortage.There are two main hoarding behaviors of rodents: larder-hoarding means that rodents caches large amounts of food in a location such as the hole;and scatter-hoarding means that rodents establish a lot of caches in a wide area.Compared with the larder-hoarding,the scatter-hoarding has more consume for rodents.Rodents retrieve seed mainly through olfaction,spatial memory and random exploration.The olfaction of scatter-hoarding rodents and larder-hoarding rodents are highly development.Spatial memory may be an important strategy for scatter-hoarding rodents because only the hoarder is familiar with their own caches.Only scatter-hoarding rodents are more advantageous than other rodents in retrieving behavior the scatter-hoarding behavior is meaningful.Although spatial memory plays an important role in the process of food hoarding and retrieved behavior,the difference in spatial memory between rodents with different hoarding behavior and the relationship between the hoarding behavior and spatial memory has not been explored.In this study,the spatial memory ability and the hoarding behaviors of different rodent species were explored by the enclosures,maze experiment and chipmunks supplemented with DHA experiment to reveal the relationship between rodent spatial memory and its hoarding behaviors.The main experimental results are as follows:1)In the hoarding experiments,Tamias sibiricus were mainly showed scatter-hoarding behavior and Apodemus peninsulae showed both scattered-and larder-hoarding behaviors;A.agrarius,Niviventer confucianus and Mus musculus acted out larder-hoarding behavior.2)In Morris water maze: the latency of four rodent species showed significant reducing trend.In the test phase,the A.peninsulae with scatter-hoarding behavior performed better than the other three rodents with larder-hoarding.Among the correct rate,the number of errors and the reaction time in the Y-maze experiments,the performance of Tamias sibiricus(scatter-hoarding)was the best,A.peninsulae(scatter-and larder-hoarding)was the second,N.confucianus and A.agrarius(larder-hoarding)again,and M.musculus were the worst.The results of Morris water maze and Y maze experiment show that it has the close relation between spatial memory and hoarding behavior and the spatial memory of scatter-hoarding rodents is superior to the larder-hoarding rodents.3)The performance of the DHA-treated group in the Y-maze(correction rate,number of errors,and reaction time)was better than that of the control group significantly.In the hoarding experiments,the hoarding activities of the DHA-treated group(22% ± 7%)were significantly higher than the one of the control group(2% ± 1%).This result indicates that the spatial memory ability of the rodents is closely related to the storage behavior,and the better spatial memory may stimulate the more scatter-hoarding behavior.4)In the search experiments,A.peninsulae,A.agrarius,and N.confucianus all firstly sought out odor-strong seeds.During the 5 days of the experiment,there was no significant difference in the time of finding the first seed,and A.peninsulae showed a significant reduced trend in the time of searching for the second seed,while N.confucianus and A.agrarius showed irregular changes.In the final day,with the absence of two seeds,50% of A.peninsulae looked for the sand-boxs that the seeds had ever existed and 30% of A.agrarius and N.confucianus could accomplish it.It also proved that spatial memory plays an important role in the retrieve behavior,at the same time it also proved that the spatial memory ability of A.peninsulae(both scatter-hoarding and larder-hoarding)is superior to the A.agrarius and N.confucianus(centralized storage).
Keywords/Search Tags:Rodent, Food hoarding behavior, Larder-hoarding, Scatter-hoarding, Spatial memory, Maze test
PDF Full Text Request
Related items