Prosocial behaviour is common and aggressive behaviour rare in free-living, brown rats in camera trap material

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Název: Prosocial behaviour is common and aggressive behaviour rare in free-living, brown rats in camera trap material
Autoři: Tuomas Aivelo, Taru Tornikoski, Santtu Pentikäinen, Juha Suonpää, Emma Vitikainen
Přispěvatelé: The Academic Outreach Network, Helsinki One Health (HOH), Maker@STEAM, Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, Global Change and Conservation Lab, Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (Urbaria), Evolution, Sociality & Behaviour
Zdroj: Mammalian Biology.
Informace o vydavateli: Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2025.
Rok vydání: 2025
Témata: Rattus norvegicus, Ecology, evolutionary biology, Prosocial behaviour, Behavioural analysis, Ethogram
Popis: While brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) are a widely used model species in behavioural studies, not much is known about their behavioural patterns in the wild, despite such populations being common and widespread across the globe. Nevertheless, widely used camera traps can provide much-needed material on the behaviour of not only rats but also many other synanthropic species. To understand rat social behaviour and assess the potential of opportunistically sourced video material, we constructed ethograms and analysed rat behaviour on a site where a colony of rats were supplementally fed to collect material for an art project. Across the nine-month observation period and approximately 2,000 h of video material, we found 222 video clips with more than one rat individual present simultaneously. These clips contained neutral and agonistic behaviours (such as stealing food and chasing), but also affiliative behaviours (smelling and nose touching) and even prosociality (such as play and peaceful sharing of food). Associative behaviour was more common whereas agonistic behaviour was rare. Our results show that even opportunistically collected video material can be used for ethological analysis and can reveal new aspects regarding the behaviour of poorly studied species or contexts.
Druh dokumentu: Article
Popis souboru: application/pdf
Jazyk: English
ISSN: 1618-1476
1616-5047
DOI: 10.1007/s42991-025-00506-x
Přístupová URL adresa: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/598709
Rights: CC BY
Přístupové číslo: edsair.doi.dedup.....c4d341f3660d88644d3c0ebc939c17f9
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Popis
Abstrakt:While brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) are a widely used model species in behavioural studies, not much is known about their behavioural patterns in the wild, despite such populations being common and widespread across the globe. Nevertheless, widely used camera traps can provide much-needed material on the behaviour of not only rats but also many other synanthropic species. To understand rat social behaviour and assess the potential of opportunistically sourced video material, we constructed ethograms and analysed rat behaviour on a site where a colony of rats were supplementally fed to collect material for an art project. Across the nine-month observation period and approximately 2,000 h of video material, we found 222 video clips with more than one rat individual present simultaneously. These clips contained neutral and agonistic behaviours (such as stealing food and chasing), but also affiliative behaviours (smelling and nose touching) and even prosociality (such as play and peaceful sharing of food). Associative behaviour was more common whereas agonistic behaviour was rare. Our results show that even opportunistically collected video material can be used for ethological analysis and can reveal new aspects regarding the behaviour of poorly studied species or contexts.
ISSN:16181476
16165047
DOI:10.1007/s42991-025-00506-x