A behavioural trait displayed in an artificial novel environment correlates with dispersal in a wild bird

Abstract

Behaviour shown in a novel environment has important consequences for fitness in many animals. It is widely studied with standard tests by placing the individuals into an unfamiliar experimental area, that is the so‐called open‐field or novel environment test. The biological relevance of traits measured under such artificial conditions is questionable and could be validated by establishing a link with variables that truly reflect exploration in the wild. Our aim in this field study was to characterize behaviours measured in an artificial novel environment (an aviary) and assess the biological relevance of them in the collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis). Therefore, we measured the repeatability and the association of multiple behavioural traits, as well as their relationship with breeding dispersal (that reflects exploration in the wild). We found evidence for non‐zero repeatability for number of crosses between the quarters, number of hops and perching latency in the aviary, and these repeatabilities were high when assessed at shorter time windows. Additionally, birds with short perching latency in the novel environment were more likely residents and bred closer to their breeding nest box in the previous year, which may suggest that latency to perch is connected to dispersal in the wild. In sum, our results indicate that behaviours assessed in an artificial environment are individual‐specific at least on smaller timescales, and at least, one component of these behaviours is correlated with an ecologically relevant trait.

Individual differences in behaviour explain variation in survival: a meta-analysis

“…We thank Alfredo Sánchez-Tójar and Raphaël Royauté for feedback in the methodological approach, all authors of (Schuett et al 2015) Acyrthosiphon pisum lab (Lapiedra et al 2018) Anolis sagrei wild (Piquet et al 2018) Atlantoxerus getulus wild (Foster et al 2017) Chlorostoma funebralis lab (Keiser et al 2018) Chlorostoma funebralis lab (Jablonszky et al 2018) Ficedula albicollis wild (Niemelä et al 2019) Gryllus bimaculatus lab (Santostefano et al 2017) Gryllus bimaculatus lab (Fisher et al 2015) Gryllus campestris wild 10 (Niemelä et al 2015) Gryllus campestris wild (Akçay et al 2015) Melospiza melodia amaka wild (Marshall et al 2016) Mungos mungo wild (Réale & Festa-Bianchet 2003) Ovis canadensis canadensis wild (van Overveld et al 2015)…”

Bold or shy? Examining the risk–taking behavior and neophobia of invasive and non–invasive house sparrows

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The effect of social environment on bird song: listener-specific expression of a sexual signal

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