Abstract
Adult male tree shrews vigorously defend against intruding male conspecifics. However, the characteristics of social behavior have not been entirely explored in these males. In this study, male wild-type tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri chinensis) and C57BL/6J mice were first allowed to familiarize themselves with an open-field apparatus. The tree shrews exhibited a short duration of movement (moving) in the novel environment, whereas the mice exhibited a long duration of movement. In the 30 min social preference-avoidance test, target animals significantly decreased the time spent by the experimental tree shrews in the social interaction (SI) zone, whereas experimental male mice exhibited the opposite. In addition, experimental tree shrews displayed a significantly longer latency to enter the SI zone in the second 15 min session (target-present) than in the first 15 min session (target-absent), which was different from that found in mice. Distinct behavioral patterns in response to a conspecific male were also observed in male tree shrews and mice in the first, second, and third 5 min periods. Thus, social behaviors in tree shrews and mice appeared to be time dependent. In summary, our study provides results of a modified social preference-avoidance test designed for the assessment of social behavior in tree shrews. Our findings demonstrate the existence of social avoidance behavior in male tree shrews and prosocial behavior in male mice toward unfamiliar conspecifics. The tree shrew may be a new animal model, which differs from mice, for the study of social avoidance and prosocial behaviors.
Highlights
Social behavior has been widely studied in animals such as fish (Glass et al, 2003), birds (Yoshida et al, 2006), bats (Moga & Moore, 1997), mice (Deboer et al, 2003), rats (Buijs et al, 2019), and monkeys (Hery et al, 1981)
The tree shrews exhibited a short duration of movement in the novel environment (86.95±11.66), whereas the mice exhibited a long duration of movement (160.50±7.34) (Figure 1B)
We evaluated the social behaviors of tree shrews and mice toward unfamiliar conspecifics using the social preference-avoidance test
Summary
Social behavior has been widely studied in animals such as fish (Glass et al, 2003), birds (Yoshida et al, 2006), bats (Moga & Moore, 1997), mice (Deboer et al, 2003), rats (Buijs et al, 2019), and monkeys (Hery et al, 1981). Territorial animals defend their territories against strangers and neighbors (intruders) (Fuchs et al, 1995; Monclús et al, 2014). If this occurs in the laboratory, social behavior is elicited by and directed toward an intruding conspecific (Pryce & Fuchs, 2017; Wang et al, 2013). Social avoidance and approach behaviors in the laboratory have been widely measured in rodents (Golden et al, 2011; Lukas et al, 2011; Raymond et al, 2019; Toth & Neumann, 2013). Various behavioral tests are used to assess social avoidance and approach behaviors of animals in the laboratory (Bauman et al, 2013; Goodson et al, 2004; Green et al, 2012; Toth & Neumann, 2013). Social behavior is defined here as behaviors expressed toward an intruding conspecific male enclosed in a Plexiglas cylinder (Kaidanovich-Beilin et al, 2011; Lopes, 2014)
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