The response to the social environment reveals sex-dependent behavioural syndromes in the Bosca’s newt (Lissotriton boscai)

Abstract

There is growing evidence of correlated behaviours across time, situations and/or contexts (behavioural syndromes) in animals, and their link with fitness makes these studies mandatory to understanding the species' behavioural and evolutionary ecology. Whereas the role of the social environment on behavioural syndromes is receiving increasing attention, experimental studies testing whether environmental fluctuations govern sex-dependent behavioural syndromes are scarce. I performed an experiment to test for the existence of sex differences in activity syndromes through a changing social environment. Males and females of Bosca's newt (Lissotriton boscai) were faced with three social situations perceived through chemical cues (own odour, no odour and same-sex conspecific odours) to measure their activity levels. Comparisons of the activity levels showed that both males and females discriminated the odourless stimuli from newt odour (either their own or the conspecific stimuli). Whereas activity levels were positively correlated between their own and the odourless stimuli in both sexes, the association between the odourless and conspecific stimuli was positive in males but decoupled in females. This is the first experimental evidence of sex differences in activity syndromes of wild-caught animals in response to social changes.

Sex‐dependent implications of primary productivity and conspecific density on geographical body size variation in a newt: disentangling local, large scale and genetic factors

“…However, males use trial‐error tactics to detect food (regardless of the feeding activities of conspecific males), leading to a lower degree of direct intraspecific competition (Aragón, ). In agreement with this, another experiment with this species has shown that changes in the social environment uncoupled behavioural syndromes in females but not in males (Aragón, ). Moreover, when same‐sex individuals were experimentally paired, females exhibited stronger agonistic interactions than males during feeding activities (Aragón, ), whereas males only showed interference behaviour during courtship (Faria, ; Aragón, ).…”

“…The PLSR models were performed separately for females and males because of the existence of sexual size dimorphism, and because each sex can be affected differently by ecological, social and evolutionary factors (Shine, ), as reported in this species (Aragón, ,b, ). We fitted PLSR models with the orthogonal scores algorithm (NIPALS) and selected components that remained significant after a cross‐validation procedure (default setting ‘CV’ in ‘pls’ package; Mevik & Wehrens, ), which divides the data set into 10 randomly selected subsets.…”

Evolutionary genetics of personality in the Trinidadian guppy II: sexual dimorphism and genotype-by-sex interactions

“…Furthermore, GxS studies have been most commonly conducted on fitness (Chippindale et al 2001 ; Brommer et al 2007 ; Foerster et al 2007 ), morphological (Steven et al 2007 , Leinonen et al 2011 , Potti and Canal 2011 , Gosden et al 2012 ) and life-history (Lewis et al 2011 ) traits. Thus, while studies including average sex differences in personality traits are widespread (Aragón 2011 , Gyuris et al 2011 , Koski 2011 , Mainwaring et al 2011 ), few also assess the presence of GxS interactions and the potential for further dimorphism to evolve (Long and Rice 2007 , Berger et al 2014 ). This may be due, in part, to the inherent difficulty in measuring behaviour on the large number of individuals required for quantitative genetic analysis.…”

Individual consistency in exploration and shyness but not activity in smooth newts (Lissotriton vulgaris): the effect of habituation?

“…Gosling, 2001; Sih et al , 2004; Réale et al , 2007; Garamszegi, Marko & Herczeg, 2013) including amphibians (e.g. Aragón, 2011; Koprivnikar, Gibson & Redfern, 2011; Maes, Van Damme & Matthysen, 2012; Wilson & Krause, 2012; Brodin et al , 2013; Carlson & Langkilde, 2013, 2014a). Consistency in the expression of behavioural traits over time and in different situations, as well as the correlation of these traits, that is behavioural syndrome (Sih et al , 2004), is often linked to survival in predator–prey situations (Dingemanse & de Goede, 2004; Carlson & Langkilde, 2014b) (but see Carlson & Langkilde, 2014a), reproductive success (Dingemanse & Réale, 2005; Cole & Quinn, 2014), disease risk (Koprivnikar et al , 2011) and dispersal tendencies (Cote et al , 2010, 2013; Gruber et al , 2017a, 2017b; reviewed in Cayuela et al , 2018).…”

“…Different contexts in which the consistency of the behaviour is being measured can mean many different things, starting from the introduction of different odours to the introduction of a novel object or parasite infestation (e.g. Sih et al , 2003; Aragón, 2011; Koprivnikar et al , 2011). Even the behavioural traits representing certain types of behaviour (axes of personality) and their level of consistency (effect sizes) vary considerably.…”