Behavioural correlations across multiple stages of the antipredator response: do animals that escape sooner hide longer?

Ortiz-Jimenez, Chelsea A; Michelangeli, Marcus; Pendleton, Erika L.; Sih, Andrew; Smith, Jennifer E.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.01.001

Cited by 19 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…Despite both shelter re-emergence latency and total time in the shelter being commonly used measures of boldness (see Methods) and equally repeatable in the current study, the use of different assays may have contributed to the lack of correlation between risk-taking behaviour during individual and group trials. While prior research has found associations between shelter re-emergence and other measures of boldness (Burns 2008 ; Boulton et al 2014 ; Sakai 2020 ; Ortiz-Jimenez et al 2022 ), similar studies have reported contrasting results (Beckmann and Biro 2013 ; Yuen et al 2017 ; see Carter et al 2013 for a broader discussion). Thus, where possible, future experiments should measure the same behavioural traits in both non-social and social contexts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…We, therefore, measured the total time that each individual spent sheltering over the duration of the 20 min trial as a more complete measure of risk-taking behaviour during group trials. Total sheltering time is another widely used measure of boldness (Polverino et al 2021 ; Ortiz-Jimenez et al 2022 ), including in reptiles (Stahlschmidt et al 2016 ; Skinner and Miller 2020 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social context mediates the expression of a personality trait in a gregarious lizard

et al. 2022

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The social environment is a key factor that influences behavioural traits across a wide array of species. Yet, when investigating individual differences in behaviour, studies tend to measure animals in isolation from other conspecifics—even in social species. Surprisingly, whether behavioural traits measured in isolation are predictive of individual-level behaviour when in social groups is still poorly understood. Here, we repeatedly measured risk-taking behaviour (i.e. boldness; 741 total trials) in both the presence and absence of conspecifics in a social lizard, the delicate skink (Lampropholis delicata). Further, we manipulated food availability during group trials to test whether the effect of the social environment on risk-taking behaviour was mediated by competition over resources. Using 105 lizards collected from three independent populations, we found that individual risk-taking behaviour was repeatable when measured in either social isolation or within groups both with and without food resources available. However, lizards that were bolder during individual trials were not also bolder when in groups, regardless of resource availability. This was largely driven by individual differences in social behavioural plasticity, whereby individual skinks responded differently to the presence of conspecifics. Together, this resulted in a rank order change of individual behavioural types across the social conditions. Our results highlight the importance of the social environment in mediating animal personality traits across varying levels of resource availability. Further, these findings suggest that behavioural traits when measured in isolation, may not reflect individual variation in behaviour when measured in more ecologically realistic social groups.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social context mediates the expression of a personality trait in a gregarious lizard

et al. 2022

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“…Carlen et al, 2021 ; Mbise et al, 2020 ; Møller, 2012 ; Piratelli et al, 2015 ), but studies documenting the subsequent phases are rare, presumably because of the associated methodological challenges in keeping track of (typically unmarked) individuals. Recently, Ortiz‐Jimenez et al ( 2022 ), showed that multiple stages in the escape sequence of California ground squirrels Otospermophilus beecheyi are also affected by human activity. Investigating the entire escape sequence can provide a deeper understanding of how urbanized areas affect the animals' behaviours, and how different phases can be influenced differently.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Surprisingly, although the variation in the decision to flee (i.e. FID) is only the first phase in the escape sequence (Weston et al, 2012 ), studies of FID have rarely included the subsequent phases (Ortiz‐Jimenez et al, 2022 ). Other decisions in the escape sequence include the mode of escape (how to escape?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond simple habituation: Anthropogenic habitats influence the escape behaviour of spur‐winged lapwings in response to both human and non‐human threats

Bar-Ziv

Sofer

Gorovoy

et al. 2022

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Habitat development may affect wildlife behaviour, favouring individuals or behaviours that cope better with perceived threats (predators). Bolder behaviours in human‐dominated habitats (HDH; e.g. urban and rural settlements) may represent habituation specifically to humans, or a general reduction in predator‐avoidance response. However, such carry‐over effects across threat types (i.e. beyond humans) and phases of the escape sequence have not been well studied to date. Here we investigated escape behaviours of a locally common wader species, the spur‐winged lapwing Vanellus spinosus. We assayed their flight initiation distance (FID) and subsequent escape behaviours in agricultural areas and in HDH. We found that lapwings in HDH were bolder, and that the difference was manifested in several phases of the predator‐avoidance sequence (shorter FIDs, shorter distances fled, and a higher probability of escape by running vs. flying). When re‐approached (by an observer) after landing, lapwings in HDH were also more repetitive in their FID than those in other habitats. To determine whether this apparent bolder behaviour in HDH areas is merely a consequence of habituation to humans or represents a broader behavioural change, we introduced an additional threat type—a remotely‐operated taxidermic jackal (‘Jack‐Truck’). Finding bolder responses in the HDH to the human threat alone (and not to the Jack‐Truck) could have supported the habituation hypothesis. In contrast, however, we found a bolder response in the HDH to both threat types, as well as a correlation between their FIDs across different sites. These bolder behaviours suggest that HDH impose a broader behavioural change on lapwings, rather than just simple habituation. Overall, our findings demonstrate how FID trials can reveal strong behavioural carry‐over effects of HDH following human and non‐human threats, including effects on the subsequent phases of escaping the predator. Further, FID assays may reveal consistent behavioural types when assessed under field conditions, and offer a direct way to differentiate among the various poorly understood and non‐mutually exclusive mechanisms that lead to behavioural differences among organisms in HDH. The mechanistic perspective is essential for understanding how rapid urbanization impacts wildlife behaviour, populations, and the range of behaviours within them, even in species apparently resilient to such environmental changes.

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“…Additionally, the intraclass correlation coefficient remained almost identical (updated individual identity ICC: 0.60; highest density intervals (HDI) for posterior samples at 95% intervals, 0.50, 0.70) to the findings reported in our previous research 2 (ICC, 0.65; HDI, 0.56, 0.74). Finally, we also explored the correlation between the conditional modes of the updated FID model and each individual’s mean and median FIDs as raw measures have also been used to estimate individual traits, e.g., time spent inspecting a novel item for boldness 23 and proportion of days trapped for trappability 24 . We found high correlation between the conditional modes and each individual’s mean (r(63) = 0.861, p < 0.001) and median (r(63) = 0.847, p < 0.001)) FID values.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intolerant baboons avoid observer proximity, creating biased inter-individual association patterns

Allan

White²,

Hill

2022

Sci Rep

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Social network analysis is an increasingly popular tool for behavioural ecologists exploring the social organisation of animal populations. Such analyses require data on inter-individual association patterns, which in wild populations are often collected using direct observations of habituated animals. This assumes observers have no influence on animal behaviour; however, our previous work showed that individuals in a habituated group of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus griseipes) displayed consistent and individually distinct responses to observer approaches. We explored the implications of our previous findings by measuring the inter-individual association patterns of the same group of chacma baboons at different observer distances. We found a strong positive association between individual tolerance levels (towards observers) and how often an animal appeared as a neighbour to focal animals when observers were nearer, and a neutral relationship between the same variables when the observer was further away. Additionally, association matrices constructed from different observation distances were not comparable within any proximity buffer, and neither were the individual network metrics generated from these matrices. This appears to be the first empirical evidence that observer presence and behaviour can influence the association patterns of habituated animals and thus have potentially significant impacts on measured social networks.

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Behavioural correlations across multiple stages of the antipredator response: do animals that escape sooner hide longer?

Cited by 19 publications

References 82 publications

Social context mediates the expression of a personality trait in a gregarious lizard

Social context mediates the expression of a personality trait in a gregarious lizard

Beyond simple habituation: Anthropogenic habitats influence the escape behaviour of spur‐winged lapwings in response to both human and non‐human threats

Intolerant baboons avoid observer proximity, creating biased inter-individual association patterns

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