Social behaviour in confined populations of the Allegheny woodrat, Neotoma floridana magister

Low-density groups of Allegheny woodrats (Neotoma floridana magister) confined in a 65-m² cage exhibited despotic social organization in which one alpha rat killed or wounded all other group members within 14 days in each of five experiments. Five of seven high-density groups, consisting of six to fourteen rats in 9·5-m² cages, were characterized by dominance hierarchies and high levels of social interaction. Two unisexual groups remained disorganized and all but one rat died in both cases. Allegheny woodrats utilized a different alarm signal and exhibited higher levels of agonistic and sexual interaction compared to similar groups of a california subspecies (N. fuscipes macrotus) which occupies a distinctly different habitat.