IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Regazzi, C. | |
| De l'‚tat solitaire … la vie sociale: adaptations d'un group de chats des sables et d'un couple de manuls … la vie collective en captivit‚ | |
| 2006 Full Book | |
Attibuted to some species, the notion of "solitary" is usually contrasted with that of "sociality" found in the species having a collective way of life and durable relations between individuals. Does the life of a solitary animal mean that it is free from intraspecific relations? Basing our work on this question, we propose to study the behaviors of two species of felids, which are famous for being solitary in their natural habitat, when they are housed in a particular environnement which is the zoological garden. In this artificial situation of captivity, the animals are forced to adapt their solitary way of life to a collective existence imposed by this environment. The observation of a "group" of sand cats (Felis margarita) and of a "pair" of Pallas'cats (Otocolobus manul) made it possible to reveal modes of adaptation to the collective life through the study of repertories of solitary activities, repertories of communication and of the use of space. The "group" of sand cats and the "pair" of Palla's cats seen to have different behavorial answers when they are put in this situation. The members of the "group" in particular show a certain behavorial "flexibility" by accepting a collective existence which involves a certain degree of sociability. On the other hand, the behavorial pattern of the members of "pair" shows their difficulty to adapt to collective life. Besides, we are unaware if the origin of this difficulty depends on the species or is merely an individual characteristic. |
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