The meek inherit the earth: less aggressive wild mice are more successful in challenging situations

0431857 - ÚBO 2015 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Hiadlovská, Z. - Macholán, M. - Mikula, Ondřej - Vošlajerová Bímová, Barbora
The meek inherit the earth: less aggressive wild mice are more successful in challenging situations.
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. Roč. 113, č. 1 (2014), s. 310-319. ISSN 0024-4066. E-ISSN 1095-8312
R&D Projects: GA ČR GA206/08/0640; GA ČR GAP506/11/1792
Institutional support: RVO:68081766
Keywords : behavioural strategies * dispersal * house mouse * Morris water task * Mus musculus domesticus * Mus musculus musculus * stress
Subject RIV: EG - Zoology
Impact factor: 2.264, year: 2014

Numerous studies have shown an association between aggressiveness and several other behavioural traits. For example, more aggressive animals were bold and active explorers tending to form persistent routines whereas less aggressive animals were shy, careful but more flexible. While the former are thought to be more successful under stable conditions the latter should have advantages in more dynamic situations. These differences can apply not only to individuals but also to populations, species or groups of species with important implications to species distributions and speciation rates. Here we utilized the Morris water task (MWT) to investigate how two subspecies, Mus musculus musculus and M. m. domesticus, known to differ in aggressiveness, cope with stressful situations. We found that less aggressive musculus males performed significantly better in solving the MWT than more aggressive domesticus males. This suggests that M. m. musculus is more flexible and could be more successful under stressful and/or dynamic situations typical of dispersal bouts. It seems plausible that this difference may have had an influence on the secondary contact between musculus and domesticus populations in the past and perhaps still can affect the dynamics of the European hybrid zone between the subspecies.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0236389