Individual personality predicts social network assemblages in a colonial bird

Abstract

Animal personalities manifest as consistent individual differences in the performance of specific behavioural expressions. Personality research has implications for zoo animal welfare, as it can further our understanding of how captive individuals may differ in their resource use and provide insight into improving individual and group social health. For group living species, personality may enable assortment based on similar behaviour and influence an individual’s interactions with conspecifics (e.g. social support). This research aimed to document how personality traits (aggressive, exploratory, submissive) influenced the social network structure of highly social animals in a captive environment. Data were collected from separate flocks of captive Caribbean (Phoenicopterus ruber) and Chilean flamingos (Phoenicopterus chilensis) to identify relationships between birds and examine opportunities for social support. The flocks associated non-randomly, and in both cases, personality was a substantial predictor of network structure. Personality also predicted key elements of Caribbean flamingo social role (degree, betweenness and average association strength) conflict outcome, and propensity to provide social support, however these patterns were not replicated within the Chilean flamingo network. While both species appear to assort by personality, the broader relationship between personality and social role may vary depending on species and context.

Sixty Years of Tinbergen’s Four Questions and Their Continued Relevance to Applied Behaviour and Welfare Research in Zoo Animals: A Commentary

“…An increased propensity to be exploratory is particularly conducive to improved survivorship [96] and social context will influence neophobia and the potential for movement into new areas [97]. Studies of behavioural types displayed by social species in captivity have revealed that assortment occurs according to an individual's personality characteristics, e.g., more aggressive flamingos (Phoenicopteriformes) prefer to assort together and offer each other social support [98]. Therefore, individual animal behavioural types will mediate and influence both their own time activity patterns and range of behaviours performed as well as those of their conspecifics.…”

Social Network Analysis as a Tool in the Care and Wellbeing of Zoo Animals: A Case Study of a Family Group of Black Lemurs (Eulemur macaco)

“…Consequently, there is a lack of available case studies concerning the applications of SNA for individual groups of zoo animals, which are often limited in size, and many studies offer much broader explorations of the structure of animal sociality on a species level. Animal care staff are primarily concerned with the care and wellbeing of individuals [3,24,40], including their temperaments and how traits these interact with those of other members of their social group [41][42][43]. Case studies exploring how tools such as SNA can be applied to groups of individuals, even when sample sizes are limited, are invaluable resources for putting evidence into practice and reducing the traditional over-reliance on a "topdown" or generalised species-based approach founded in traditions and actions that have always been carried out in the past [39,44].…”