Differences in hoarding behavior between captive and wild sympatric rodent species

Abstract

In hand reared birds and mammals, it is generally considered that the development of hoarding behavior is the result of an interaction between the development and maturation of the nervous system and learning from individual experience. However, few studies have been done on wild animals. We tested differences in hoarding behavior between captive reared and wild individuals of two sympatric small rodents, Korean field mice Apodemus peninsulae and Chinese white-bellied rats Niviventer confucianus. Our aim was to identify if lack of experience from the wild would result in poorly developed hoarding behavior. The Korean field mice perform scatter-and larder-hoarding behaviors whereas Chinese white-bellied rats hoard food in larders only. Within outdoor enclosures we compared seed-hoarding behavior in reared juveniles (RJ, 40-50 d old, pregnant mothers were captured in the wild), wild juveniles (WJ, as young as the RJ) and wild adults (WA, over-winter animals). We found that a lack of experience from the wild had significant effects on seed-hoarding behavior for both species. The RJ-group removed and hoarded fewer seeds than the WJ-and WA-groups. The two latter groups hoarded seeds in a similar way. In the Korean filed mouse the RJ-group placed more seeds on the ground surface than other groups. These findings suggest that wild experience is important for the acquisition of an appropriate food-hoarding behavior (especially for scatter-hoarding) in these species [Current Zoology 57 (6): 725-730, 2011].

An effort toward molecular biology of food deprivation induced food hoarding in gonadectomized NMRI mouse model: focus on neural oxidative status

“…Generally, hoarding is influenced by environment, internal milieu of animals, and their interactions. Environmental uncertainties such as food shortage, low food availability, coldness, and short day-length trigger hoarding [ 3 , 6 ]. Furthermore, internal factors such as endogenous fat depots, internal energy, gonadal steroids, metabolic hormones, glucocorticoids, neuropeptide regulators of food intake, and catecholamines especially dopamine are all known to alter hoarding behavior [ 6 – 9 ].…”

Evaluating an Animal Model of Compulsive Hoarding in Humans

“…In one of the few studies measuring hoarding in wild rodents, as opposed to laboratory-reared rodents,Zhang and Wang (2011) found significant differences in hoarding behaviors between the reared juvenile and both juvenile and adult wild rats, whereby reared juveniles hoarded less than either of the wild groups. This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.…”