Exploration is dependent on reproductive state, not social state, in a cooperatively breeding bird

Edwards, Hannah A.; Dugdale, Hannah L.; Richardson, David S.; Komdeur, Jan; Burke, Terry

doi:10.1093/beheco/arw119

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…These social niches, such as breeding roles, cause individuals to behave differently (although the direction of the relationship is still unclear) and encourages behavioural consistency due to social conflict and the costs incurred by changing social niches ( Bergmüller and Taborsky 2010 ). Although we have shown that social status (primary or non-primary) is not a mechanism that generates and maintains these individual differences in the Seychelles warbler, we have shown that exploration of a novel object is reproductive state-dependent, whereby young individuals with low future reproductive potential exhibited fast exploratory behaviour ( Edwards et al 2016 ). Exploratory behavioural variation may therefore be generated and maintained by reproductive tactics that are modified to suit environmental conditions ( Hammers et al 2013 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…When behaviour is dependent on asset protection, individuals with a high future reproductive state (i.e., individuals that invest in future reproduction or receive reproductive benefits in the future) are predicted to be consistently slow explorers and averse to risk, in order to reduce their risk of mortality, from predation compared with those that have a low future reproductive state ( Dall et al 2004 ; Stamps 2007 ; Wolf et al 2007 ). For example, in the cooperatively-breeding Seychelles warbler, there is a correlation between personality and asset protection ( Edwards et al 2016 ). Furthermore, there is also the potential for personality to be dependent on social state.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social niches, such as social status, cause individuals to behave differently by reducing social conflict and reinforcing consistency through positive feedback mechanisms such as learning ( Bergmüller and Taborsky 2010 ; Wolf and Weissing 2010 ). The relationship between social state and personality is unclear; some studies have shown that a dominant social status correlates with fast exploration and aggressive and bold behaviour in a territorial context ( Verbeek et al 1996 ; Dingemanse and de Goede 2004 ; Favati et al 2014 ), while other studies have found no such correlation ( Gómez-Laplaza 2002 ; Fox et al 2009 ; Edwards et al 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These differences in reproductive and social state among individuals could generate behavioural differences in the population ( Bergmüller and Taborsky 2010 ; Wolf et al 2012 ). Indeed, personality has been linked with asset protection in this system ( Edwards et al 2016 ). Second, there is little immigration and emigration between islands and the whole island population has been intensively monitored ( Komdeur et al 2004 ), so enabling the recapture of individuals for personality testing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Repeatable and heritable behavioural variation in a wild cooperative breeder

2017

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Lay SummaryTo evolve and respond to natural selection behavioural traits must have a genetic component. Quantifying the genetic component of behaviour can thus reveal its evolutionary significance. In a cooperative breeder, we tested if behavioural traits were consistent, heritable and correlated. We found that our measures of exploratory behaviour were consistent and correlated, and that novel environment exploration, was heritable. This behaviour therefore has the greatest capacity to evolve in response to a changing environment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Repeatable and heritable behavioural variation in a wild cooperative breeder

2017

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“…We found that aggression was positively correlated with contest success ( table 1 ), but none of the behavioural responses in the NA assay covaried with aggression ( table 3 ). Of our other personality measures, exploration is sometimes, and sometimes not, found to covary with the outcome of social interactions in male fowl [ 33 , 47 ], which could indicate that exploration has a rather weak effect on the establishment of social dominance, and that it only matters when contestants are closely matched for other important traits such as aggression and comb size (as a comparison, a correlational study found that social status was not associated with exploration in a cooperatively breeding warbler, Acrocephalus sechellensis , [ 48 ]). Closer examination of the circumstances under which exploration influences contest success is needed before firm conclusions about this relationship can be drawn.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of social experience, aggressiveness and comb size on contest success in male domestic fowl

2021

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The ability to dominate conspecifics and thereby gain access to resources depends on a number of traits and skills. Experience of dominance relationships during development is a potential source of learning such skills. We here study the importance of social experience, aggressiveness and morphological traits for competitiveness in social interactions (contest success) in male domestic fowl ( Gallus gallus domesticus ). We let males grow up either as a single (dominant) male or as an intermediately ranked male in a group of males, and measured their success in duels against different opponents. We found that single-raised males had lower contest success than group-raised males, and that aggression and comb size correlated positively with contest success. This indicates that experience of dominance interactions with other males increases future success in duels. We similarly studied the consequences of growing up as a dominant or subordinate in a pair of males, finding no statistically significant effect of the dominance position on contest success. Finally, we found that males were consistent over time in contest success. We conclude that social experience increases contest success in male domestic fowl, but that certain behavioural and morphological characteristics have an equal or even stronger covariation with contest success.

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Extra-pair parentage and personality in a cooperatively breeding bird

Edwards

Dugdale

Richardson

et al. 2018

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Why so much variation in extra-pair parentage occurs within and among populations remains unclear. Often the fitness costs and benefits of extra-pair parentage are hypothesised to explain its occurrence; therefore, linking extra-pair parentage with traits such as personality (behavioural traits that can be heritable and affect reproductive behaviour) may help our understanding. Here, we investigate whether reproductive outcomes and success are associated with exploratory behaviour in a natural population of cooperatively breeding Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis) on Cousin Island. Exploratory behaviour correlates positively with traits such as risk-taking behaviour and activity in other wild bird species and might promote extra-pair mating by increasing the rate at which potential extra-pair partners are encountered. We therefore predicted that fast-exploring individuals would have more extra-pair offspring. There is also a potential trade-off between pursuing extra-pair parentage and mate guarding in males. We therefore also predicted that fast-exploring males would be more likely to pursue extra-pair parentage and that this would increase the propensity of their mate to gain extra-pair parentage. We found that neither the total number of offspring nor the number of extra-pair offspring were associated with a male’s or female’s exploratory behaviour. However, there was a small but significant propensity for females to have extra-pair fertilisations in pairs that were behaviourally disassortative. Overall, we conclude that, due to the small effect size, the association between exploratory behaviour and extra-pair paternity is unlikely to be biologically relevant.Significance statementTrue genetic monogamy is rare, even in socially monogamous systems, and multiple factors, such as behaviour, social structure, morphology and physiology, determined by the biological system can cause variation in extra-pair parentage (EPP). Therefore, investigating the inherent differences in these factors among individuals could be informative. We investigated whether reproductive outcomes/success are associated with differences in the propensity to explore novel environments/objects in a promiscuous, island-dwelling cooperatively breeding bird, the Seychelles warbler. Our results showed that exploratory behaviour was not associated with the number of offspring produced by an individual, and thus the long-term fitness consequences of different exploratory tendencies did not differ. We also found that the propensity to engage in EPP in females was higher in dissimilar behavioural pairs, but due to the small effect size, we hesitate to conclude that there are personality-dependent mating outcomes in the population.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s00265-018-2448-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Exploration is dependent on reproductive state, not social state, in a cooperatively breeding bird

Cited by 8 publications

References 67 publications

Repeatable and heritable behavioural variation in a wild cooperative breeder

Repeatable and heritable behavioural variation in a wild cooperative breeder

Effects of social experience, aggressiveness and comb size on contest success in male domestic fowl

Extra-pair parentage and personality in a cooperatively breeding bird

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