隨著蝙蝠前往小型的種群棲息,，或是在冬季獨(dú)自過冬,，由幾十名成員構(gòu)成的蝙蝠種群在一年內(nèi)要經(jīng)歷許多次的分離與重組。然而研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn),，像人類和大象一樣,，雌蝙蝠卻會在很長的時期內(nèi)組成一些彼此扶持的小團(tuán)隊(duì)。在日前發(fā)表于英國《皇家學(xué)會學(xué)報B卷》上的一項(xiàng)研究中,，研究人員用數(shù)據(jù)集錄器標(biāo)記了兩個種群的蝙蝠,，并且在5年的時間里追蹤了它們的筑巢行為。他們發(fā)現(xiàn),，待在一起的并非只是家庭成員,；一個網(wǎng)絡(luò)分析表明，這些“女孩俱樂部”是由來自許多不同種系以及年齡段的蝙蝠構(gòu)成的,。（雄蝙蝠總是獨(dú)棲的,。）研究人員提出，蝙蝠社會可能受益于合作行為,，例如梳理和交流,，與你的女友干這些事總是很有趣。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原文出處：
Proc. R. Soc. B doi: 10.1098/rspb.2010.2718
Bats are able to maintain long-term social relationships despite the high fission–fusion dynamics of their groups
Gerald Kerth1,2,3,*?, Nicolas Perony4,? and Frank Schweitzer4
Abstract
Elephants, dolphins, as well as some carnivores and primates maintain social links despite their frequent splitting and merging in groups of variable composition, a phenomenon known as fission–fusion. Information on the dynamics of social links and interactions among individuals is of high importance to the understanding of the evolution of animal sociality, including that of humans. However, detailed long-term data on such dynamics in wild mammals with fully known demography and kin structures are scarce. Applying a weighted network analysis on 20 500 individual roosting observations over 5 years, we show that in two wild Bechstein's bat colonies with high fission–fusion dynamics, individuals of different age, size, reproductive status and relatedness maintain long-term social relationships. In the larger colony, we detected two stable subunits, each comprising bats from several family lineages. Links between these subunits were mainly maintained by older bats and persisted over all years. Moreover, we show that the full details of the social structure become apparent only when large datasets are used. The stable multi-level social structures in Bechstein's bat colonies resemble that of elephants, dolphins and some primates. Our findings thus may shed new light on the link between social complexity and social cognition in mammals.
