How to explore a new environment: exploratory tactics of the black rat (Rattus rattus)

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11310%2F24%3A10495584" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11310/24:10495584 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=qb1-M3aTHr" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=qb1-M3aTHr</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoae015" target="_blank" >10.1093/cz/zoae015</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

How to explore a new environment: exploratory tactics of the black rat (Rattus rattus)

Original language description

The black rat (Rattus rattus) is a unique model for studying exploratory tactics due to its enormous colonizing potential. Considerable behavioral variability and consistent interindividual differences might help populations inhabit new environments and persist there even under intense pressure. Additionally, the affinity of the black rat for climbing might be another advantage, widening their potential niche. In this study, we describe the exploratory tactics of the black rats when introduced to a novel environment. In the first experiment, we tested 12 rats and calculated repeatability of their behaviors across 12 sessions of an enriched open-field test. We concluded that climbing is a highly repeatable behavior that serves as an important source of interindividual variability. In the second experiment, we tested 24 black rats in a unique L-shaped arena. Each rat was tested twice. We found that the majority of rats distributed their activity evenly, exploring each part of the apparatus for a similar amount of time, thus maximizing their chances of finding resources. Nevertheless, these &quot;even&quot; explorers still greatly differed in their level of activity, orderliness and affinity for climbing, generating large variability. In contrast, the minority of rats concentrated their activity only on a section of the new environment and were therefore characterized as selective explorers. Overall, we concluded that a combination of such exploratory tactics as well as a bias for even explorers enables black rats to quickly colonize new environments and persist there even under unfavorable conditions.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10613 - Zoology

Project

—

Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Current Zoology

ISSN

1674-5507

e-ISSN

2396-9814

Volume of the periodical

70

Issue of the periodical within the volume

3

Country of publishing house

CN - CHINA

Number of pages

12

Pages from-to

371-382

UT code for WoS article

001205204500001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85199208870