A unique social system<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n Pedroza Lopez\u2019s research examines how the social dynamics of the common degu population in Chile shape the way these animals use space. His master\u2019s thesis explores how variation in social group formation influences home range size, or the area a group uses in its daily activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis matters because movement is closely tied to the resources degus can access,\u201d he said, \u201cwhich ultimately affects group success, especially in harsh environments like the desert shrubland we study.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His work considers several factors that may influence how far groups range, including group size, sex composition, stability, and other behavioral traits. He added, \u201cWe want to understand how these social factors shape how degus use space around their burrows, and what that reveals about the costs and benefits of group living.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Degus also provide a rare opportunity to study cooperation beyond genetic ties. \u201cUnlike many social animals, degus don\u2019t form groups based on genetic relatedness,\u201d Pedroza Lopez said. \u201cThat lets us examine other drivers of group living and communal breeding, where multiple females reproduce and jointly care for pups regardless of parentage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His research ultimately asks how these social systems influence survival and success. \u201cMy work looks at how social factors affect individual success through space use,\u201d he said. \u201cIt helps explain why degus live in groups and share care even without genetic ties, rather than living alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fieldwork in action<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pedroza Lopez\u2019s research involves months of intensive fieldwork, monitoring a single population of degus over the course of a field season using live trapping, GPS tracking, and behavioral observation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe most exciting part of my fieldwork has been working with a single population over a relatively long period of time (5\u20136 months), trapping and monitoring them 5\u20136 days a week,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause of this, we learn to recognize individuals and the personality traits that set them apart, and we can follow their progress throughout the field season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also highlighted the opportunity to observe young animals as they first emerge from the burrows they are born in. \u201cWe also get to be around for the offspring-rearing season, when pups start coming out of their burrows and we can collect data for future projects looking at how the variables we study may impact reproductive success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As his research continues, Pedroza Lopez hopes his findings will contribute to a broader understanding of social behavior across species. \u201cMechanisms that drive social behavior are likely to apply to other social species, giving us a better idea of why these behaviors exist across social animals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This story was written by Anna Gray in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 8, 2026 \u2013 In most social animals, cooperation starts with kinship. But in the world of degus, family trees don\u2019t explain who lives together or why they share the work of raising young. For Emilio Pedroza Lopez, a master\u2019s student in natural resources science at the 溏心vlog免费B站, studying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":108769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1907,5,1914,1909,1905],"class_list":["post-108766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-academic-excellence","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences","tag-graduate","tag-international","tag-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108766"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108772,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108766\/revisions\/108772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/sites\/16\/2026\/05\/ELopez-768x1024.jpg\")