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Rats lack a preference for social feeding: A study on the behavior of rats with ad libitum access to food
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Abstract(s)
Os ratos são animais altamente sociais. Os primeiros estudos realizados com grupos de ratos a viverem juntos revelaram um complexo sistema social. Em ambientes naturalistas (ou semi-naturalistas) os ratos cavam túneis no substrato, que normalmente abrigam várias fêmeas e poucos machos. Quando vivem em colônias eles compartilham os mesmos locais de nidificação e alimentação, sendo capazes de adaptarem o seu comportamento para diferentes contextos sociais, observando poucos casos de comportamento agressivo. É comummente aceite que os ratos gostam de comer juntos, desde que foram observadas algumas circunstâncias onde isso acontecia. No entanto, esses relatórios não testam diretamente se os ratos mostram preferência para alimentação social. Além disso, o comportamento alimentar dos ratos permanece muito pouco estudado devido ao facto deste comportamento ser muito difícil de quantificar com precisão e de forma objectiva. Portanto, nós projetamos um experimento para estudar o comportamento alimentar de pares de ratos com ad libitum acesso à comida. Confirmando estudos anteriores, em nossas condições ratos mostraram um padrão diário de alimentação com maior atividade no período noturno do que no diurno, e que a sua alimentação consiste em comer poucas quantidades de cada vez, várias vezes ao dia. Os ratos mostraram uma preferência por um local de alimentação onde a alimentação social era possível, mas nossos dados sugerem que esta preferência não era devido a informação social. Os ratos parecem não ter preferências para alimentação social, visto que o tempo passado a alimentar sozinho corresponde à aproximadamente 90% de toda a atividade alimentar observada.
ABSTRACT: Rats are highly social animals. Early studies done with groups of rats living together revealed a complex social system. In naturalistic (or semi-naturalistic) environments rats cave burrows in the dirt that usually house many females and few males. When living in colonies they share the same nesting and feeding sites, being capable of adapting their behavior for different social contexts, with few instances of aggressive behavior. It is commonly accepted that rats enjoy feeding together since they were observed eating together in some circumstances. However, these reports do not test directly whether rats show preference for social feeding. In addition, the feeding behavior of rats remains vastly understudied, as this behavior is very difficult to quantify accurately and objectively. Therefore, we designed an experiment to study feeding behavior of pairs of rats with ad libitum access to food. Confirming previous studies, in our conditions rats showed a daily pattern of feeding with higher activity in the dark than in the light period, and their feeding is organized in grazes rather than meals. Rats did show a preference for a feeding site where social feeding was possible., but our data suggests that this preference was not due social information. However, rats appear to lack preferences for social feeding as time spent feeding alone corresponds to roughly 90% of all feeding activity observed.
ABSTRACT: Rats are highly social animals. Early studies done with groups of rats living together revealed a complex social system. In naturalistic (or semi-naturalistic) environments rats cave burrows in the dirt that usually house many females and few males. When living in colonies they share the same nesting and feeding sites, being capable of adapting their behavior for different social contexts, with few instances of aggressive behavior. It is commonly accepted that rats enjoy feeding together since they were observed eating together in some circumstances. However, these reports do not test directly whether rats show preference for social feeding. In addition, the feeding behavior of rats remains vastly understudied, as this behavior is very difficult to quantify accurately and objectively. Therefore, we designed an experiment to study feeding behavior of pairs of rats with ad libitum access to food. Confirming previous studies, in our conditions rats showed a daily pattern of feeding with higher activity in the dark than in the light period, and their feeding is organized in grazes rather than meals. Rats did show a preference for a feeding site where social feeding was possible., but our data suggests that this preference was not due social information. However, rats appear to lack preferences for social feeding as time spent feeding alone corresponds to roughly 90% of all feeding activity observed.
Description
Dissertação de mestrado apresentada ao ISPA – Instituto Universitário
Keywords
Ratos Comportamento alimentar Alimentação social Rats Feeding behavior Social feeding