Interspecific variation in cooperative burrowing behavior byPeromyscusmice

Abstract

Animals often adjust their behavior according to social context, but the capacity for such behavioral flexibility can vary among species. Here, we test for interspecific variation in behavioral flexibility by comparing burrowing behavior across three species of deer mice (genus Peromyscus) with divergent social systems, ranging from promiscuous (Peromyscus leucopus and Peromyscus maniculatus) to monogamous (Peromyscus polionotus). First, we compared the burrows built by individual mice to those built by pairs of mice in all three species. Although burrow length did not differ in P. leucopus or P. maniculatus, we found that P. polionotus pairs cooperatively constructed burrows that were nearly twice as long as those built by individuals and that opposite‐sex pairs dug longer burrows than same‐sex pairs. Second, to directly observe cooperative digging behavior in P. polionotus, we designed a burrowing assay in which we could video‐record active digging in narrow, transparent enclosures. Using this novel assay, we found, unexpectedly, that neither males nor females spent more time digging with an opposite‐sex partner. Rather, we demonstrate that opposite‐sex pairs are more socially cohesive and thus more efficient digging partners than same‐sex pairs. Together, our study demonstrates how social context can modulate innate behavior and offers insight into how differences in behavioral flexibility may evolve among closely related species.

TManual: Assistant for manually measuring length development in structures built by animals

“…Structures built by animals are considered extended phenotypes, and the temporal development of such structures reflects the temporal dynamics of the animal's behavior (Hansell, 2005 ; Sugasawa & Pritchard, 2022 ). One common type of structure built by animals is a gallery system, which is observed in most subterranean animals, and includes burrow construction in mice (Bedford et al, 2022 ; Metz et al, 2017 ), tunnel foraging by termites (Bardunias & Su, 2005 ; Mizumoto et al, 2020 ), and nest excavation in ants (Buhl et al, 2005 ; Toffin et al, 2009 ). Gallery systems can also be observed aboveground in some social insects, for example, shelter‐tube construction by ants and termites (Chiu et al, 2022 ; Mizumoto & Bourguignon, 2020 ).…”

Sexual differences in locus coeruleus neurons and related behavior in C57BL/6J mice

“…These are measurements of well-being and self-care behaviors [ 67 ] in which males outperformed females. Accordingly, other studies reported that less time is spent burrowing by female mice than males [ 68 ] and that the burrow formed by males is longer than that of females [ 69 ]. Thus, males and females perform burrowing behavior differently which may reflect differences in basal well-being.…”

TManual: Assistant for manually measuring length development in structures built by animals

“…It is made available under a preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in The copyright holder for this this version posted December 22, 2022. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.21.521503 doi: bioRxiv preprint 2 categorized them into different groups to capture the geometric patterns. This approach has been adopted to assess ant nest excavation (Kwapich et al, 2018;O'Fallon et al, 2022), termite tunnel foraging (Hedlund and Henderson, 1999;Robson et al, 1995;Su et al, 2004), shelter-tube construction (Mizumoto and Matsuura, 2013), and cooperative burrowing in mice (Bedford et al, 2022). In this approach, because experimenters arbitrarily identify and measure each gallery, the outcomes are intuitive and the results are easy to interpret.…”

“…Structures built by animals are considered extended phenotypes, and the temporal development of such structures reflects the temporal dynamics of the animal’s behavior (Hansell, 2005; Sugasawa and Pritchard, 2022). One common type of structure built by animals is a gallery system, which is observed in most subterranean animals, and includes burrow construction in mice (Bedford et al ., 2022; Metz et al ., 2017), tunnel foraging by termites (Bardunias and Su, 2005; Mizumoto et al ., 2020), and nest excavation in ants (Buhl et al ., 2005; Toffin et al ., 2009). Gallery systems can also be observed aboveground in some social insects, for example, shelter-tube construction by ants and termites (Chiu et al ., 2022; Mizumoto and Bourguignon, 2020).…”

“…Most previous studies have directly measured the length of each gallery in a whole system and categorized them into different groups to capture the geometric patterns. This approach has been adopted to assess ant nest excavation (Kwapich et al ., 2018; O’Fallon et al ., 2022), termite tunnel foraging (Hedlund and Henderson, 1999; Mizumoto et al ., 2020; Robson et al ., 1995; Su et al ., 2004), shelter-tube construction (Mizumoto and Matsuura, 2013), and cooperative burrowing in mice (Bedford et al ., 2022). In this approach, because experimenters arbitrarily identify and measure each gallery, the outcomes are intuitive and the results are easy to interpret.…”