Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (12)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hare, J. F.
Right arrow Articles by Murie, J. O.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Hare, J. F.
Right arrow Articles by Murie, J. O.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 1996 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

research-article

Ground squirrel sociality and the quest for the ‘holy grail’: does kinship influence behavioral discrimination by juvenile Columbian ground squirrels?

James F. Hare and Jan O. Murie

Department of Zoology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada

ABSTRACT

Research on social discrimination by ground-dwelling squirrels has focused on die ability of squirrels to discriminate kin from nonkin. The predominant mechanism underlying that ability is social familiarization. Although familiarity-based mechanisms may result in kin discrimination where kin are associated reliably in space and time, past investigations have largely ignored additional levels of social discrimination that may result from ongoing familiarization in the natural context Here we present data from a cross-fostering experiment that examines the relative contributions of rearing association and relatedness to subsequent behavioral discrimination among juvenile Columbian ground squirrels (Spermophilus columbianus). Rearing association significantly influenced recognitive and agonistic behavior among juveniles while relatedness proved insignificant in affecting behavioral interactions. Thus, direct familiarization in the natal burrow is both sufficient and necessary to account for the transitive appearance of kin-differential behavior among newly emerged juveniles documented in previous studies. Reanalyses of data from field experiments on S. columbianus social discrimination fail to detect any evidence of kin-biased behavior, and evidence from studies purporting to document kinship effects is equivocal at best Taken together with more recent findings, the scant data suggestive of kin discrimination by Columbian ground squirrels are best viewed as an artifact of selection promoting the discrimination of familiar from unfamiliar individuals at the level of localized groups. Fitness payoffs of such discrimination may accrue via reciprocal altruism, or ‘dear-enemy’ recognition, and would promote the evolution and maintenance of sociality without recourse to indirect components of inclusive fitness commonly invoked to explain ground squirrel sociality. Finally, our data call into doubt the notion that mechanisms allowing the direct assessment of kinship should be common among the more social sciurids.

Key words: familiarity, ground squirrel, kinship, social discrimination, sociality.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.