Individual differences in the behavior of juveniles yellow-bellied marmots [Différences individuelles dans le comportement des jeunes marmottes à ventre jaune].

Résumé

Le comportement individuel est testé dans un labyrinthe, par MIS (mirror-image stimulation) et par le comportement social sur le terrain. Les résultats suggèrent que les marmottes ont des phénotypes comportementaux individuels qui s'expriment dans les interactions sociales avec leurs conspécifiques. Yellow-bellied marmots express considerable individuality as measured by behavior in a maze, mirror-image stimulation (MIS), and social behavior in the field. Maze behavior discriminated between residents and dispersers residents explored the maze more widely than did dispersers. Males could not be distinguished from females nor survivors from non-survivors by their maze behavior. A group of six yearling females was established to examine the relationship between individual behavioral phenotypes (as determined by MIS) and social behavior in the field. This experiment provided a situation in which social behavior was not influenced by age, sex, or reproduction (female yearlings are non-reproductive). The number of social interactions per individual ranged from 25 to 69. The number of observed interactions per individual differed significantly from the expected for greeting, allogrooming, total amicable, play, and total social interactions. Rankings of greeting, total amicable, and total interactions were directly correlated with rankings on the « avoidance » axis : play was inversely correlated with the « approach » axis. These results suggest that marmots have individual behavioral phenotypes that are expressed in their social interactions with their conspecifics.