Foraging dynamics are associated with social status and context in mouse social hierarchies

Abstract

Living in social hierarchies requires individuals to adapt their behavior and physiology. We have previously shown that male mice living in groups of 12 form linear and stable hierarchies with alpha males producing the highest daily level of major urinary proteins and urine. These findings suggest that maintaining alpha status in a social group requires higher food and water intake to generate energetic resources and produce more urine. To investigate whether social status affects eating and drinking behaviors, we measured the frequency of these behaviors in each individual mouse living in a social hierarchy with non-stop video recording for 24 h following the initiation of group housing and after social ranks were stabilized. We show alpha males eat and drink most frequently among all individuals in the hierarchy and had reduced quiescence of foraging both at the start of social housing and after hierarchies were established. Subdominants displayed a similar pattern of behavior following hierarchy formation relative to subordinates. The association strength of foraging behavior was negatively associated with that of agonistic behavior corrected for gregariousness (HWIG), suggesting animals modify foraging behavior to avoid others they engaged with aggressively. Overall, this study provides evidence that animals with different social status adapt their eating and drinking behaviors according to their physiological needs and current social environment.