Spontaneous behavior predicts colony membership, individual identity, and rank in naked mole-rat societies
Animal societies are organized across scales, from moment-to-moment actions of individuals to dynamic group structure. A central challenge in sociobiology is to understand how behaviors of individuals shape group structure. Here, using machine vision to map recurrent fine-scale behavioral modules in the eusocial naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), we show that spontaneous behavior in…
Naked mole-rats, a species of eusocial rodents, exhibit complex social structures that are shaped by individual behaviors, even when they are alone. A study using machine vision to analyze their behaviors has revealed that spontaneous actions can predict group-level organization, such as colony membership and individual identity.
Researchers determined dominance relationships and found that ranks remain stable for months to years. Fine-scale behavioral patterns in isolation accurately predicted dominance relationships between pairs of animals, allowing them to reconstruct the rank order within each colony. However, models trained within one colony failed to predict ranks correctly in others, indicating that each colony has its unique behavioral patterns that express the social position of its members.
These findings show that even solitary naked mole-rats carry signatures of their identity and place within their society, connecting their fine-scale behaviors to the maintenance of social structure over extended periods.
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