Effects of Captivity on Foraging Behavior and Survival in the Wild of Microtus Pennsylvanicus

Microtus pennsylvanicus;Voles;Captive wild animals;Adaptation - Biology

Kozuch, Amaranta EMcPhee, Misty ;

University of Wisconsin

关键词: Microtus pennsylvanicus;    Voles;    Captive wild animals;    Adaptation - Biology;   

Others  :  https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/62206/Kozuch%2c%20Amaranta.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: University of Wisconsin

【 摘 要 】

Human activity has caused wildlife populations worldwide to decline making it imperative for conservation biologists to develop captive breeding and reintroduction programs. These programs, however, have had limited success. Captivity has been shown to select for behavioraltraits that are maladaptive in the wild, such asinability to recognize optimal food resources, thereby minimizing survival. I developed this study to explore the mechanisms involved withbehavioral change in a systematic and hypothesis-driven framework.I captured, housed and later tested meadow voles(Microtus pennsylvanicus) in a foraging test tomeasure behavioral differences as a function of environment and time. Animals were housed in either a simple or complex environment for greaterthan or less than 1.5 months. Analysis of behavioral data from the foraging test suggeststhe complex environment may maintain appropriateforaging behaviors for sexes and a short time ina simple environment may maintain appropriateresponses to unpredictability. All subjects alongwith a wild cohort were subsequently releasedinto outdoor enclosures and survival was monitored. Analysis of mark-recapture data suggests environment and time do affect survivaland recapture of individuals differently; animalshoused in complex environments (for less than 1.5months) maintained similar survival rates aswild individuals. My study suggests that captiveindividuals may benefit from additional complexity(for short time intervals) withinthe captiveenvironment to maintain wild behaviors andincrease survival upon reintroduction.