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S0003347220300014 | Group living animals can affect each other s behaviour causing changes in the rate or type of behaviours performed or convergence in behaviour to that displayed by the majority of neighbours . Facilitation and conformity effects can act to reduce direct competition and or enable social coordination and the degree to which individuals can affect each other s behaviour can depend upon the identities and traits of those interacting . To investigate the effect of social partners on individual behaviour we studied the activity of Java sparrows | Social facilitation occurs when an individual s behaviour increases that of others. Social facilitation depends on the identities and traits of companions. Social isolation causes behavioural inhibition. Java sparrows were more active in a social context than when alone. Social facilitation was greatest when male companions were present. |
S0003347220300026 | Wind is an important yet understudied environmental influence on foraging behaviour . We investigated the direct and indirect effects of wind on foraging worker honey bees | The effects of wind on the foraging behaviour of honey bee workers were tested. Foraging rate significantly decreased in higher wind speeds. This was due to increased hesitancy to take off. Flower movement independent of wind had no effect on foraging rate. Wind significantly reduces honey bee foraging efficiency. |
S0003347220300051 | The dot probe task is an experimental procedure commonly used to study how animals pay attention to different stimuli . In this study we evaluated how different durations of image exposure modulate the response to this task and how male and female tufted capuchin monkeys | We assessed attention to social stimuli in capuchin monkeys using a dot probe task. Stimuli were images of unfamiliar conspecifics shown for 250 or 1000. None. ms. Both sexes biased their attention towards images of males shown for 250. None. ms. Females biased their attention towards images of females shown for 1000. None. ms. Males biased their attention towards images of grooming shown for 1000. None. ms. |
S0003347220300063 | Quantifying transgenerational effects of stress is important to predict outcomes of anthropogenic disturbances for wildlife species . Maternal stress can programme physiological and behavioural phenotypes in offspring which may be maladaptive if maternal and offspring environments are mismatched . We investigated effects of a match and mismatch between egg cortisol and offspring stress levels in lake sturgeon | Elevated egg cortisol and high stress caused reduced cortisol response to stressor. Stress reactivity differed between two families. Specific combinations of egg cortisol and stress influenced swimming activity. |
S0003347220300075 | Assessing local habitat quality via social cues provided by conspecific or heterospecific individuals sharing the same needs is a widespread strategy of social information use for breeding habitat selection . However gathering information about putative competitors may involve agonistic costs . The use of social cues reflecting local habitat quality acquired from a distance such as acoustic cues could therefore be favoured . Bird songs are conspicuous signals commonly assumed to reliably reflect producer quality and thereby local site quality . Birds of various species have been shown to be attracted to breeding sites by conspecific and heterospecific songs and to use conspecific song features as information on producer quality . Whether they can do the same with heterospecific song features and whether this depends on the individual s own phenotype and especially its competitive ability remains unknown . We used a playback experiment in a wild population of collared flycatchers | Birds may use song features from heterospecifics to assess territory quality. We tested whether collared flycatchers use great tit song features for settlement. Old aggressive females settled in zones with high quality tit song playback. Nonaggressive females settled in zones with low quality tit song playback. Our experiment shows complex use of information from heterospecific song features. |
S0003347220300099 | Early life experience may have lifelong influences on an individual s behaviour in ways that are either adaptive or maladaptive depending in part on whether these early experiences accurately foreshadowed conditions in later life . Stress coping style is one example of a suite of behaviours or personality traits that may be influenced by early exposure to stressful stimuli . Here we examine the effect of developmental stress exposure on behavioural syndromes in adult convict cichlids | Juvenile stress disrupted formation of an explorationboldness behavioural syndrome. Fish with prior stress exposure tended to display proactive coping behaviours. Early stress exposure may result in higher baseline cortisol levels. Early life constraints can cause lasting phenotypic change. Natural constraints may lead to an explorationboldness behavioural syndrome. |
S0003347220300117 | The development of reproductive isolation is a crucial step in the speciation process . Premating isolation is often implicated in traditional models of divergence with gene flow but the evolution of reproductive isolating mechanisms has been poorly explored in species resulting from hybrid speciation . We investigated the mechanisms of reproductive isolation between two closely related Adriatic pipefish species | We examined reproductive isolation in Adriatic pipefish. . Homoploid hybridization of. produced. Pre and postmating mechanisms prevent backcrossing of. Size based preferences conflict with species recognition cues in. Few successful matings occurred between heterospecifics all hybrids were inviable. |
S0003347220300129 | Throughout his career Konrad Lorenz co founder of ethology extrapolated from animal behaviour to humans especially concerning degeneration as a result of domestication and then prescribed for the allegedly resulting ills of society . The descriptions were constant . Lorenz had observed that wild animals subjected to and bred in captivity often underwent various abnormal physical and behavioural changes such as changes in stature and coloration and also in instinctive behaviour patterns mating eating raising young and so on . He went on to posit that the same sorts of degeneration of human individuals were due to overcrowding race mixing poor nutrition overbreeding etc . any kind of human society being equated with captivity and claimed that faults in human society arose from these sorts of individual degeneration effects . Then of course as a physician he prescribed for how society might be cured . Since he came to scientific prominence during the Nazi era there have been constant criticisms and accusations that Lorenz must have been a Nazi and that Nazi ideology underlay many of his ideas about humanity and ethology . The thesis of this paper is that Lorenz had accepted the truth of human degeneration and social decline before the rise of Nazism . While he adopted Nazi type terminology prescriptions and arguments during the early stages of his career he dropped them as soon as the end of World War II rendered them unacceptable . Thereafter Lorenz retained the belief in human degeneration and social decline but chose other arguments and prescriptions based in part on popular theories of the day e.g . capitalism and later ecology . | Konrad Lorenz was one of the major founders of ethology. He came to scientific prominence during the Nazi era. He believed that degeneration and social decline were the result of domestication. Early in his career he adopted Nazi type terminology prescriptions and arguments. After World War II he adopted more popular theories of the day capitalism ecology . |
S0003347220300130 | Disease exposure is a threat to all organisms but there are a number of methods of self defence . First individuals can proactively prevent disease through avoidance behaviours . If they become infected individuals can activate an immune response to control the infection . A trade off between avoidance behaviours and immune response activation has been hypothesized to occur because of costs associated with each strategy . Individuals may balance behavioural and immunological strategies to provide optimal protection against disease . To test this hypothesis in a captive population of zebra finches | Behavioural and immunological defences against infection may be traded off. We found few trade offs between defences and these differed with age and sex. Corticosterone exposure induced trade offs between behavioural and immune defences. Avoidance behaviour and haptoglobin levels were repeatable in zebra finches. |
S0003347220300142 | Personality traits often covary forming behavioural syndromes . Such associations if driven by an underlying proximate mechanism could limit the independent evolution of each behaviour . In contrast a behavioural syndrome may be the result of selection favouring the behavioural correlation under certain ecological circumstances . In this context investigating the stability and the potential drivers of behavioural syndromes is a fundamental step towards understanding how they might shape the evolution of behaviours . We assessed syndrome stability across time in two subpopulations of free ranging juvenile lemon sharks | Behavioural syndromes were inconsistent between subpopulations and years in sharks. The subpopulation with the most predators displayed stronger behavioural syndromes. Newborn recruitment was a main driver of the strength of the syndrome across years. |
S0003347220300154 | When males and females differ in their reproductive interests each sex attempts to increase its own reproductive success sometimes to the detriment of its mate . The environment that individuals experience has been shown to be fundamental in mediating this sexual conflict since it can alter the balance between the costs and benefits that males and females obtain from mating . In the seed beetle | The environment can affect the strength of sexual conflict. In seed beetles environmental water can alter the costs and benefits of mating. Access to water does not affect the costliness of males as mates. But access to water has negative effects on female fitness. It is important to tease apart the effects arising via males and females. |
S0003347220300269 | Carrion is a patchy nutrient rich and frequently bulky resource that hosts a complex community of competing organisms . Several insect species have specialized to use carrion for breeding revealing a specific suite of behavioural adaptations . Larvae of carrion insects regularly aggregate while feeding frequently forming spectacular larval masses . Here we analysed patterns and mechanisms of collective feeding by larvae of the communally breeding carrion beetle | Larval aggregates of carrion beetle. are prevalent on large carcasses. While aggregating larvae consistently respond to heat in the environment. Ground deposited chemical cues are less important for this aggregation. Heat and food are key larval aggregation mechanisms in this species. |
S0003347220300270 | Phenotypic plasticity is an important mechanism facilitating adaptation to environmental change that often varies among individuals . One reason for this individual variation is that plasticity may depend on state variables such as size condition or age which affect the costs and benefits of plasticity . Recent theoretical work predicts that plasticity will decrease as an organism ages because costs of plasticity mean that flexible phenotypic adjustments by individuals to environmental change will be less beneficial as age related survival prospects decrease . Here we used | We tested if plasticity of parental care in burying beetles decreases with age. Younger females show greater mean levels of plasticity than older females. There is an offspring number size trade off in older but not young beetles. Plasticity is less beneficial as age related survival prospects decrease. Results support models of the evolution of age dependent plasticity. |
S0003347220300282 | Individuals often vary in their problem solving performance and animal personality may help explain such interindividual variation because it affects how individuals perceive and interact with their environment . Proximate factors provide behavioural mechanisms that also affect problem solving performance . Our aim was to assess the link between personality and problem solving performance in wild caught common brushtail possums | Personality influenced how well individual possums solved the escape box test. Only the most exploratory individuals were likely to solve the difficult task. Persistence hindered individuals in the easy task but helped in the difficult task. Possums learnt effectively solving tasks faster on their second attempt. |
S0003347220300294 | Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain mechanisms of personality formation . Several theoretical models predict that interactions between intrinsic state and behaviour gradually increase or sometimes decrease individual variation across ontogeny . However these models should be empirically tested with a simple study system . Here I investigated whether state differences in energy intake promote consistent behavioural differences in clonal geckos . I controlled food supply of two groups and evaluated their life history traits and behavioural traits throughout ontogeny . The high energy group grew faster and laid eggs earlier than the low energy group . Geckos at several age classes exhibited consistent individual differences in risk boldness foraging boldness and activity . However significant behavioural change was detected only in risk boldness individuals in the high energy group maintained boldness over their lifetimes whereas individuals in the low energy group changed to being shy at early stages and returned to being bold at later stages . These results imply that behaviours do not change gradually but drastically in response to energy intake suggesting that personality formation does not represent simple divergence with ontogeny . Because predation risk and food availability change across an individual s lifetime the state dependent safety model could explain divergence and convergence of risk boldness in geckos at different life stages . The present study highlights the importance of a life stage specific effect of energy state on behaviour for personality formation . | Clonal geckos were reared with different energy intake from hatching to adult. The high energy group grew faster and laid eggs earlier than the low energy group. Divergence of risk boldness occurred in juvenile but not in adult stages. Personality formation was a complicated process contrary to the simple models. Life stage specific effects are probably key to understanding individual variation. |
S0003347220300348 | Caudal autotomy the voluntary shedding of a tail is a last ditch strategy used by many lizard species to escape from predators . There are several costs associated with caudal autotomy that may cause lizards to change their behaviour during tail regeneration . These behavioural changes may be dependent upon individual differences in response to autotomy and or the degree of tail loss as many lizards have the capacity to only partially shed their tail which probably entails fewer costs relative to complete autotomy . However no study to our knowledge has considered how caudal autotomy or the extent of autotomy affects individual behavioural variation . Accordingly we investigated the effects of both partial and complete tail loss on individual behavioural variation in delicate skinks | Lizards can shed their tail to escape predators but this strategy comes at a cost. The magnitude of this cost is likely to be dependent on the amount of tail shed. Complete tail loss impacted behaviours linked to locomotion and predator escape. Complete tail loss also led to more predictable less plastic behaviour. These behavioural impacts were not found in lizards experiencing partial tail loss. |
S000334722030035X | Many animals have colour patterns that appear to change dynamically when the animal moves . Experiments have suggested that such colour patterns termed dynamic flash coloration can reduce predatory attacks by misrepresenting the prey s location . However the conditions that make this coloration effective are not known . We here tested the influence of two factors target size and unpredictable movement on the efficacy of dynamic flash coloration . Both these factors have independently been shown to affect the predator s ability to attack a moving prey accurately but whether they interact with prey coloration remains unclear . Using a virtual predation experiment with human participants we found that the effectiveness of dynamic flash coloration when compared to background matching coloration declined as the size of the target increased but only when the target movement was linear . However when the movement was unpredictable we found dynamic flash coloration to be effective in reducing the number and accuracy of attacks irrespective of target size . Under most conditions the effectiveness of dynamic flash coloration did not differ from that of a uniform luminance matched grey target . Our results suggest that the efficacy of dynamic flash coloration is limited by prey size but animals can overcome this constraint by employing an unpredictable movement trajectory . The study also provides direct empirical evidence that protean antipredator behaviour influences the effectiveness of prey coloration that works in motion . | Dynamic change in prey colour during motion may reduce predatory attacks. We tested the factors affecting the effectiveness of dynamic coloration. When movement was linear dynamic coloration was effective only in small targets. It was effective irrespective of size when the movement path was unpredictable. Its evolution might be affected by prey size and escape trajectory. |
S0003347220300361 | Migration theory has largely overlooked the role of overwintering grounds and yet many migratory animals spend most of the annual cycle there . High winter site familiarity could confer considerable advantages on animals preparing for subsequent migration phases enabling them to maximize migration speed and minimise the use of unknown stopover sites . Despite this quantitative studies of the magnitude of fuel stores attained at such sites are lacking . To evaluate the energetic contribution of an overwintering site to spring migration we used manual and automated telemetry to estimate departure date departure fuel load flight range and breeding destination of blackpoll warblers | Optimal migration theory has largely overlooked the function of wintering sites. Extensive fuelling at such sites could maximize migration speed and reduce risk. Blackpoll warblers stored enough energy at a tropical wintering site to fly 2710. None. km. Mean flight range was equivalent to 50 of the total migratory journey. Wintering sites can have an intrinsic role in shaping migratory strategies. |
S0003347220300373 | Humans and other animals have been shown to exhibit preferences for options previously associated with greater past need . Such studies indicate that animals are sensitive to both the physical properties of choices and their own state dependent gains at the time of learning . Because this behaviour appears to occur across divergent taxonomic groups it most likely reflects a common way that animals learn about food . Here we study this phenomenon in the frog eating bat | Properties of prey and state dependent gains of predators may affect learning. We tested whether bats nutritional state during learning affects food preferences. Bats preferred cues that they learned when they were in a hungry state. Reliance on internal state as a cue to food availability is most likely adaptive. |
S0003347220300385 | Parental aggression can be a costly behaviour and flexible based upon context . While defence of offspring from potential predators has been well studied in the convict cichlid it is unclear why parents are aggressive towards other parental pairs who are not likely to be offspring predators . In this experiment we explore the aggressive behaviour of pairs towards parental pairs and nonparental individuals using experimental presentations in the field . We found that parental pairs showed more aggressive displays towards other parental pairs than towards nonparental individuals . Bites did not differ between treatments but there was a sex difference in bites with males preferring to bite males and females showing no preference . As a higher level of display was observed both in the presence and absence of fry we also examined the pair response to fry alone . Focal pairs were more aggressive to stimulus fry that were larger than their own fry indicating that the larger stimulus fry represented a risk to the focal pair as predicted by previous findings on brood mixing . We conclude that pair aggression towards parental pairs is a means to prevent brood mixing and the greater aggression shown towards parental pairs suggests that the risk to parental pairs of brood mixing is greater than that of fry predation by nonparental fish . | We studied context dependent decisions of biparental defence in convict cichlids. Parents were more aggressive to other parental pairs than to nonparental adults. Parents were also more aggressive to fry that were larger than their own. Pair aggression towards parental pairs appears to be a means to prevent brood mixing. Parents appear more threatened by brood mixing than by potential fry predation. |
S000334722030049X | Copying the mate choice of another conspecific by a bystanding observer is a socially mediated alternative mating strategy to independent mate choice . Because increased sperm competition is a potential cost of mate choice copying males should be prudent and less likely to copy the observed mate choice of other males when the latter are more sexually attractive than themselves . We tested this hypothesis using the Trinidadian guppy | Male Trinidadian guppies copied the observed mate choice of a model competitor. Males did not mate choice copy in the absence of a nearby model male. The strength of the copying responses was not dependent on male sexual attractiveness. The latter finding was not as expected based on sperm competition theory. |
S0003347220300506 | Comparative studies aid in our understanding of specific conditions favouring the initial evolution of different types of social behaviours yet there is much unexplained intraspecific variation in the expression of social behaviour that comparative studies have not yet addressed . The proximate causes of this individual variation in social behaviour within a species have been examined in some species but its fitness consequences have been less frequently investigated . In this study we quantified the fitness consequences of variation in the sociality of prairie voles | Prairie voles exhibit substantial within species variation in social behaviour. We examined the fitness consequences of individual variation in social behaviour. Voles with an intermediate level of sociality had the highest mating success. Voles with intermediate sociality with all voles had higher reproductive success. Males with an intermediate number of social connections had higher mean body mass. |
S0003347220300518 | An appreciation of the diverse roots of animal behaviour study is essential for informed teaching and stimulating current research and scholarship . Insights by early seminal authors are often ignored insights that may have avoided subsequent controversies or spawned productive research . Even with internet access now available for much early work historical perspectives are increasingly being lost . Animal behaviour textbooks are often misleading and simplistic on historical matters . In this paper I document how four authors writing 100 or more years ago greatly influenced my research on nonavian reptile behaviour . These four authors which merit serious re reading by students of virtually any taxa and topic are Jakob von Uexkll Margaret Floy Washburn James Mark Baldwin and Wallace Craig . There are also current and upcoming challenges and risks impacting animal behaviour research that may affect how today s research will be viewed in historical perspectives 50 100 or more years from now . | I discuss the importance and relevance of four pioneers in animal behaviour. Specifically I focus on early work by von Uexkll Washburn Baldwin and Craig. I also identify threats to the historical evaluation of animal behaviour research. |
S000334722030052X | The gut microbiome is structured by social groups in a variety of host taxa . Whether this pattern is driven by relatedness similar diets or shared social environments is under debate because few studies have had access to the data necessary to disentangle these factors in wild populations . We investigated whether diet relatedness or the 1 | Colobus group ID and home range separation predicted gut microbiome differences. Between group differences in the gut microbiome decreased with social connectedness. This social network metric was a better predictor than diet and relatedness. Microbes transmitted during between group encounters may help the host digest leaves. |
S0003347220300567 | Certain behavioural traits including innovation and reduced neophobia may facilitate successful invasions by allowing first arrivals to overcome the challenges of a novel environment . However the extent to which these traits occur in invasive populations in comparison with native populations and whether these traits prevalence remains consistent throughout a species introduced range have been scarcely investigated . We tested whether object neophobia food neophobia and two levels of motor innovation in the common myna | We measured neophobia and innovation in native and invasive common mynas. Individuals from the invasion front were the most motorically innovative. Individuals from the invasive range were more tolerant of a novel food. The frequency of these phenotypes decreased as the environment became familiar. We provide empirical evidence to support the adaptive flexibility hypothesis. |
S0003347220300579 | Exposure to predation should affect prey responses to predators by selecting for threat recognition and or general risk avoidance . We investigated whether native and non native predator density on the home reefs of juvenile striped parrotfish | Caribbean parrotfish freeze when they see or smell native predatory groupers. Caribbean parrotfish do not respond to similar cues from invasive predatory lionfish. However parrotfish from reefs with many predators are generally more cautious. This overall cautiousness allows parrotfish to survive better when hunted by lionfish. |
S0003347220300580 | Many crustaceans use their large claws to signal fighting ability during territorial contests . However the size of a claw does not always reflect its strength or the bearer s ability to fight . If strength predicts the outcome of a fight the mismatch between the size and strength of a claw creates dishonest signalling . Still only a handful of species have been studied leaving a gap in our knowledge of the taxonomic diversity and evolutionary history of dishonest signalling . To help fill this gap we studied signalling and fighting between virile crayfish | Crustaceans produce large but weak claws as dishonest signals of their strength. Crayfish did not use large weak claws as signals during territorial aggression. Other traits such as body size likely determine outcomes of aggressive communication. |
S0003347220300592 | The dynamic terminal investment threshold model posits that the propensity of an individual to terminally invest in response to an immediate survival threat such as an infection depends on other factors that alter an individual s residual reproductive value . Here we explore the potential for dynamic terminal investment in burying beetles insects that inter small vertebrate carcasses as the sole source of food for their offspring and that exhibit extensive biparental care . We injected males at two different ages with heat killed bacteria and measured their reproductive output predicting that immune challenged males would show a longer period of parental care consume less of the carcass and produce a greater number of larvae in the current reproductive attempt compared with control males . We further predicted that terminal investment would be more evident in older males than in younger ones . Males challenged with heat killed bacteria as virgins prior to their first reproductive attempt showed no evidence of terminal investment whereas these same individuals when challenged at a later age as reproductively experienced breeders in a subsequent reproductive attempt showed increased reproductive output . Older immune challenged individuals gained less mass during the time on the carcass than control males suggesting that this terminal investment was subsidized at least in part by males refraining from eating as much of the carcass as they might have otherwise done in the absence of an immune challenge leaving more carrion for their offspring to consume at the expense of their own maintenance and future reproduction . Because it seems likely than an individual s residual reproductive value decreases with both increasing age and reproductive experience the context specific terminal investment shown by immune challenged males in the current study aligns with theory . | Older male burying beetles terminally invest but younger males do not. Older immune challenged males produced more young than control males. Older immune challenged males consumed less of the carcass than control males. Terminal investment was thus subsidized by older males forgoing feeding. These results align with the dynamic terminal investment threshold model. |
S0003347220300609 | Recent improvements in tracking technologies have resulted in a growing number of fine scale animal movement studies in a variety of fields from wildlife management to animal cognition . Most studies assume that an animal s optimal foraging route is linear ignoring the role the energy landscape can play in influencing movement efficiency . Our objective was to investigate whether landscape features that affect movement costs influence the movement of chimpanzees | We studied landscape drivers of chimpanzee ranging in a rugged montane environment. Chimpanzees used a network of repeatedly used routes across their range. Chimpanzees preferentially used human made trails but not ridges for travel. Route reuse has implications for chimpanzee energetics sociality and cognition. |
S0003347220300610 | There is increasing evidence that animal personality can affect many aspects of an individual s behaviour life history and fitness . However there have been few studies about the link between personality and social organization in the context of wild mammals in their own natural environments . This article reports on ecologically relevant data linking experimental data from the wild to long term social association data in a socially and cognitively complex mammal species bottlenose dolphin | Wild bottlenose dolphins show individual differences in neophilia. Bottlenose dolphin social network is structured by personality. Bold dolphins have a central role in the social network. Thus bold dolphins probably play an important role in group cohesion and stability. Thus bold dolphins probably play an important role in spread of information. |
S0003347220300634 | Theory expects contestants to adjust their investment in fighting in line with the perceived value of a resource . Thus we expect to see an increase in contest duration or aggressive actions if the subjective value of the resource is estimated to be high relative to occasions where the value is estimated to be low . Although this expectation is well established in theory we know little about how contestants structure their contests over resources in the wild in particular how variation in resource availability affects how contestants invest in fights . The objectives of this study were twofold to examine whether the structure of malemale fights varied with presence and abundance of oestrous females in the population and there was an association between investment in fighting and mating success during fights between fallow deer | Theory suggests that contestants should vary investment in line with resource value. Subordinate contestants increased their investment in fighting during the rut. An increase in display behaviour was associated with fewer matings for subordinates. Increases in attacking actions was associated with greater matings for dominants. Investment decisions during fights are based on resource value not opponent quality. |
S0003347220300646 | Parents increase their fitness by investing resources in offspring . However such investment is costly for parents leading to trade offs which should shift towards heavier investment in reproduction as females age and future reproductive opportunities decrease . Nests of aquatic turtles laid farther from water have higher survival than those laid closer to shore because nest predators often forage along environmental edges . However the predation risk of adult females increases farther from water because water is used as refuge from terrestrial predators . Thus females may balance investment in current offspring versus maternal survival and future offspring . To test whether investment varies depending upon perceived risk we exposed 30 painted turtles | We test whether investment varies with perceived predation risk in a turtle. Females did not nest closer to the safety of water after simulated predation. Older females nested in riskier areas than younger females to increase nest survival. After simulated predation females nested in areas with lower nest survival. |
S0003347220300658 | Spatial cohesion in group living animals is assumed as a risk sensitive characteristic . Few studies have explicitly investigated this assumption or asked whether risk related changes in spatial cohesion operate over short term or long term scales . We explored whether two groups of wild samango monkeys | Animal group spatial cohesion is often assumed as a risk sensitive characteristic. We studied two groups of wild samango monkey exposed to natural risk. Both reactive and pre emptive responses to risk were considered. Groups increased cohesion during intergroup conflict but not during eagle encounters. One group was more cohesive in locations of high eagle risk on the landscape. |
S000334722030066X | Imitative vocal learning has now been described in a variety of taxa but is most extensively studied for birdsong learning . However songbirds produce a variety of songs and calls that also are learned . For example black capped chickadees | We examined the role of HVC and RA in black capped chickadee vocalizations. Gargle call production elicited the most neuronal response in HVC and RA. Gargle calls elicited more neuronal response than fee bee song in HVC and RA. Only the gargle call was correlated with the neuronal response in HVC and RA. The song control system may be better described as a learned vocal control system. |
S0003347220300671 | Social learning is a powerful mechanism of information acquisition and can be found in various species . According to the type of information transmitted animals may change their motivation to perform actions shift their perception attention to relevant stimuli associate other individuals behaviours with particular stimuli events or learn to perform novel behaviours . The latter is referred to as imitation and has been considered a cognitively demanding mechanism necessary for high fidelity copying which may or may not occur in nonhuman animals . We tested the ability of 20 juvenile ravens to imitate an action demonstrated by a human experimenter . Birds of two test groups could observe a familiar human executing one of two opening techniques at an artificial fruit apparatus whereas birds of a control group observed the human touching but not opening the apparatus . Ravens of both test groups tended to use the same direction of movements as observed when they opened the apparatus themselves with their beak . Comparison with the control group revealed that ravens had a predisposition to manipulate the apparatus by pecking . Hence observers of vertical hand movements most likely strengthened their initial preference for executing peck movements towards an item enclosing food whereas observers of horizontal hand movements started to apply beak head movements that hardly occur during foraging and are novel to this context . Juvenile ravens are thus capable of imitating simple motor actions even though they may use a different body part to execute the behaviours than human demonstrators . | We tested the imitative ability of 20 juvenile ravens in a foraging task. A human experimenter demonstrated one of two opening techniques with his hand. Ravens copied the demonstrated actions and executed them with their beak. Action imitation allows ravens to apply behaviours in a novel context. |
S0003347220300683 | Intraspecific morphological variation fundamentally influences individual resource exploitation . In plantpollinator systems variation in floral morphologies and pollinator mouthparts may affect pollinators resource use . This relationship has frequently been studied across species but hardly ever at the intraspecific level in natural circumstances . We studied flower visits of clouded Apollo butterflies | Clouded Apollo butterflies mouthpart lengths show high population wise variability. Similar variability is found in the visited nectar sources corolla depth. Butterflies with long proboscides visit nectar plant with deepest flowers more often. Intraspecific variation is important to understand plant pollinator interactions. Intraspecific variation s impact does not support pollination syndrome hypothesis. |
S0003347220300695 | Attempts to unravel the proximate and ultimate causes of individual behavioural and life history variation have often pointed to predicted correlations between behavioural physiological and life history traits forming pace of life syndromes . The POLS hypothesis predicts that high levels of production require high levels of foraging effort and risk taking supported by high metabolism . Despite tremendous interest in this topic the POLS hypothesis still has limited empirical support which has led to calls for more stringent empirical tests of the hypothesis and its assumptions . To that end we examined the associations between risk taking behaviour resting metabolic rate and somatic growth rate in a marine gastropod | We examined associations between pace of life POLS traits in a marine gastropod. Boldness and resting metabolic rate RMR were found to be repeatable over time. Individuals that were bolder grew faster and had higher RMR. Results support a pace of life syndrome linking RMR growth and boldness. |
S0003347220300701 | Inference by exclusion or the ability to select a correct course of action by systematically excluding other potential alternatives is a form of logical inference that allows individuals to solve problems without complete information . Current comparative research shows that several bird mammal and primate species can find hidden food through inference by exclusion . Yet there is also wide variation in how successful different species are as well as the kinds of sensory information they can use to do so . An important question is therefore why some species are better at engaging in logical inference than others . Here we investigate the evolution of logical reasoning abilities by comparing strepsirrhine primate species that vary in dietary ecology frugivorous ruffed lemurs | Species vary in capacities for logical inference such as inference by exclusion. We tested how two lemur species with different ecologies solve such problems. Lemurs were more successful using visual than auditory information to find food. Lemurs made inferences from direct information but not via exclusion. Only frugivorous ruffed lemurs exploited both sensory modalities. |
S0003347220300713 | Because females produce and lay eggs or nurture embryos they are constrained in the timing of their investment in reproduction . Males may have more opportunity to concentrate reproductive investment earlier in life mating with as many females as possible soon after becoming adult . This fundamental difference leads to the prediction that because males can bias allocation towards increased reproductive investment early in life they will use up resources earlier in their lives and hence senesce faster than females . A first step towards testing this prediction is to determine whether there are between sex differences in age related changes in behaviour . To do this we recorded the behaviour of crickets | The sexes differ in reproductive strategies affecting their life histories. Life history differences are predicted to influence how individuals decline with age. We made minute by minute observations of the behaviour of wild crickets. We compare age related changes between the sexes in behaviours both sexes express. There are substantial differences between the sexes in how age affects behaviour. |
S0003347220300725 | Infant care is costly and strategies to deal with its energetic demands may involve increasing feeding time or reducing activity levels or social time . In mammals the most energetically expensive form of infant care is lactation followed by infant carrying in species where young are transported over long distances . In titi monkeys infants are carried primarily by males which allows us to tease apart the effects of lactation and infant carrying . We analysed activity budgets and diet composition in adult males and females in seven free ranging groups of red titi monkeys | Both parents changed their activity patterns and diet composition after infant birth. Females fed more ate more arthropods and rested less after infant birth than before. Males in contrast fed less ate fewer arthropods and rested more. Females fed more at the expense of resting and to a lesser degree social time. Despite the decrease in social time females conserved grooming time within pairs. |
S0003347220300828 | Individuals and groups within the same population may differ in their use of resources . Also referred to as niche specialization such differences can be documented through direct or indirect observation of resource or habitat use . Here we examined selective habitat use in alliance forming male Indo Pacific bottlenose dolphins | Niche specialization can occur among individuals and groups within populations. Male dolphin alliances each of 314 members cooperate to secure oestrous females. Alliances inhabit overlapping ranges with similar proportions of available habitats. Alliances with overlapping ranges and similar habitats forage in different habitats. Thus food as well as females may explain marked differences in alliance tactics. |
S0003347220300865 | The storage of food is widespread among mammals and birds and can be flexibly adjusted to various contexts such as competition food availability or energetic demands . In bird species nonbreeders often move through large areas whereby periods of long term settlement can alternate with short term visits . In food caching species these differences in the degree of local settlement might change the benefits gained from storing food and caching may only be advantageous during periods of prolonged settlement . We examined whether differences in local settlement influence food caching behaviour of wild common ravens at a local anthropogenic food source with high interspecific and intraspecific competition . We found that individuals with a higher degree of site fidelity engaged in food caching more than individuals with less site fidelity this effect was even stronger in the presence of potential predators representing a high risk foraging situation . Further juvenile ravens were less likely to cache than subadults and adults and an increasing number of conspecifics present at the feeding site decreased the likelihood of caching . We found considerable individual variation in respect to the area used for caching . We suggest that individuals with higher site fidelity may gain more benefits from caching food and or that they are more successful in obtaining food potentially due to more experience with the local foraging situation . Research is needed to examine the exact causes of the observed link between food caching behaviour and the different degrees of site fidelity . Our findings show that differences in movement and settlement decisions can influence ecological aspects such as food acquisition and thus may have important consequences for individual fitness and population dynamics . | We studied how differences in site fidelity affect food caching behaviour of ravens. Individuals with a high site fidelity cached food more frequently. This effect was even stronger in the presence of predators. Young ravens cached food less often compared to older individuals. Caching behaviour decreased with an increasing number of conspecifics. |
S0003347220300877 | Social relationships can have important fitness consequences . Although there is increasing evidence that social relationships carry over across contexts few studies have investigated whether relationships formed early in life are carried over to adulthood . For example juveniles of monogamous species go through a major life history stage transition pair formation during which the pair bond becomes a central unit of the social organization . At present it remains unclear whether pair members retain their early life relationships after pair formation . We investigated whether same sex associations formed early in life carry over into adulthood and whether carryover was dependent on season in a monogamous species . We also investigated the role of familiarity genetic relatedness and aggression on the perseverance of social associations . We studied the social structure before and after pair formation in captive barnacle geese | Few studies have investigated whether early life bonds carry over into adulthood. We studied the maintenance of early life bonds after pair formation in geese. In females early life bonds were lost during breeding but resurfaced during winter. In males the early life bonds persisted across both seasons. Our study shows that early life bonds can have lifelong consequences. |
S0003347220300890 | This paper examines the context of science scholarship and research careers experienced by behavioural biologists from under represented minority groups during the period starting in the late 1800s until the early decades of the Animal Behavior Society . For much of history white European and American men have dominated the seats of scientific leadership shaping narratives and controlling who asks scientific questions how these questions are examined and what is significant . Yet individuals from URM groups have navigated careers in animal behaviour and related fields and along with some nonminority allied scientists have often simultaneously advocated for diversity and inclusion among our ranks . The lasting impact of these scholar activists has been important not only to the discipline but to science as a whole . This paper shines lights on missing narratives of URMs who were often excluded in academic histories as well as emphasizing the importance of creating more inclusive spaces for future animal behaviour scholars . I highlight the contributions of American scientists in the U.S.A. who have contributed to the development of animal behaviour and related disciplines and have raised awareness about social justice and inclusivity in our field . | I examine diversity activism in animal behaviour and the ABS in the U.S.A. I focus on challenges of under represented minorities from the 1800s to present. I highlight contributions of scholar activists in the U.S.A. to science as a whole. |
S0003347220300907 | Mating with multiple partners is common across animal taxa . Males mate multiply because reproductive success positively correlates with mating success . In contrast multiple mating is expected to increase the direct or indirect benefits accrued by females but not necessarily increase their reproductive success . Cases in which female reproductive success increases with mating success could be due to females acquiring material resources that directly increase reproductive output . Because multiple mating likely increases reproductive success more in males than in females males typically experience greater sexual selection . Consequently males in harem polygynous species where a few males can monopolize access to several females in a population are expected to be under stronger sexual selection than females . We field test these predictions by using the harem polygynous Wellington tree wt | Male and female Wellington tree wt mate with multiple partners in the wild. Females in the present study had at least nine mates. Reproductive success of both sexes increased with increased mating success. Female oviposition rates increased with increasing mating success. Offspring were sired by nonresident males not co occupants of female gallery . |
S0003347220300919 | Behavioural polymorphisms associated with morphs with a known genetic basis are interesting to study since they provide a model system to investigate the molecular basis of complex behaviours . White throated sparrows are one of such rare models presenting two morphologies and behavioural types tan and white caused by a chromosomal rearrangement . The behavioural differences have been mainly studied during reproduction defining two morph specific breeding strategies and different levels of aggression between morphs . Outside of the breeding season the morphological differences are less apparent morphs are more difficult to distinguish and the behavioural polymorphism is poorly understood . In this study we caught wild individuals during the winter determined their morph by genetic analysis and analysed the differences in behaviour between morphs when encountering a novel object under standardized conditions in captivity . White morphs are more aggressive during reproduction therefore we expected them to be less affected by the presence of the novel object than tan morphs animal personality research shows that more aggressive individuals are less affected by the presence of novel objects . Contrary to our expectations white morphs were more neophobic than tan morphs and within morphs males were more neophobic than females . Furthermore white morph individuals and males of both morphs suffered greater weight loss during captivity compared to tan morphs and females respectively suggesting that the response to captivity induced stress differs between morphs and between sexes . Finding behavioural differences between morphs not related to reproduction implies a broader impact of the effects of the chromosomal rearrangement on the behavioural polymorphism in this species . | We examined behavioural differences in white throated sparrow morphs tan vs white . Tan morphs were more neophilic than white morphs. Females were more neophilic than males. White morphs and males lost more weight than tan morphs and females. Behavioural differences may be related to stress coping strategies. |
S0003347220300920 | In many animal species mothers eat some of their own eggs . While this filial egg cannibalism can have profound impacts on both parental and offspring fitness it remains unclear whether this behaviour is a simple by product of a generally low maternal investment in egg care and whether it is determined before or after egg production . Here we addressed these questions in the European earwig | Filial egg cannibalism has profound impacts on both parental and offspring fitness. European earwig mothers benefited directly from eating some of their eggs. Egg cannibalism was independent of the level of maternal investment. It is determined after egg laying and is not an anticipatory maternal effect. It is not a simple by product of a low maternal investment in care. |
S0003347220300932 | Fissionfusion social dynamics are common among a number of vertebrate taxa and yet the factors shaping these variable associations among subgroup members have not been widely addressed . Associations may occur simply because of shared habitat preferences however social ties may also be influenced by genetic relatedness or social attraction . Here we investigate the association patterns of wild black and white ruffed lemurs | We examined social association spatial overlap and relatedness in ruffed lemurs. We found weak social association low pairwise relatedness and little spatial overlap. Relatedness was not correlated with social association or social preference. Social association was instead strongly related to space use. Other factors are likely to account for some of the variation in social association. |
S0003347220300944 | Some crab spiders can change their colour to match the flower they use as a hunting platform and in choice trials they select same colour flowers over contrasting flowers . Colour change is a costly physiological process that could help spiders capture more prey or avoid predators . There is no evidence however that crypsis increases the hunting success of spiders and its effect on predator avoidance has not been studied . To evaluate the effect of crypsis on predation rate we tethered yellow crab spiders | In our field site most crab spiders are yellow and ambush prey on yellow daisies. Yellow spiders suffer greater predation rates on white than on yellow flowers. Spiders increase their hunting success when moved to purple flowers they never use. Colour matching evolved to minimize predation rate not to maximize hunting success. |
S0003347220300968 | Current opinion in insect navigation assumes that animals need to align with the goal direction to recognize familiar views and approach it . Yet ants sometimes drag heavy food items backwards to the nest and it is still unclear to what extent they rely on visual memories while doing so . In this study displacement experiments and alterations of the visual scenery revealed that ants indeed recognized and used the learnt visual scenery to guide their path towards the nest while walking backwards . In addition the occurrence of forward peeking behaviours revealed that backward walking ants continually estimated their directional uncertainty by integrating multiple cues such as visual familiarity the state of their path integrator and the time spent backwards . A simple mechanical model based on repulsive and attractive visual memories captured the results and explained how visual navigation can be performed backwards . | Backward walking ants can steer using learnt terrestrial visual cues. Steering does not require forward body alignment. Steering may be based on the integration of attractive and repulsive views. Peeking behaviour is triggered in periods of low directional certainty. Directional certainty is built on multiple sources of current and past information. |
S000334722030097X | Experience can modify how animals respond to relevant stimuli from their environment for example through associative learning . In particular odour stimuli play a central role in foraging by influencing decision making . Numerous studies have shown that odours can acquire relevance for an animal by becoming associated with food after appetitive experience . Therefore studying to what extent learning can modulate the behavioural response to olfactory stimuli is essential to improve our understanding about the role of experience in food exploitation in nature . Here we evaluated whether foraging experience can modulate the response of | Foraging experience can modulate the response to olfactory cues in eusocial wasps. An initially aversive odour can become attractive after appetitive experiences. Foragers can learn to associate odours with protein rich sources as reward. We found long term memory after 24. None. h related to the attractiveness of the odour. Single appetitive experiences can notably impact foraging decisions. |
S0003347220300981 | Anthropogenic noise is increasing in intensity and scope raising concern over its effects on wildlife populations . Laboratory studies suggest that exposure to elevated noise can interfere with the development of a young animal s ability to process social signals and ultimately its ability to communicate as an adult . Whether such effects occur in nature is unknown however . Here we present the first field experiments examining whether elevated noise affects the development of the ability to discriminate the vocalizations of different conspecifics . We exposed nestling tree swallows to white noise during development and then tested in both quiet and noisy conditions whether they could discriminate their parents provisioning calls and their nestmates begging calls from those of other individuals . We predicted that noise would interfere with discrimination because previous work showed that it decreased nestling detection of adult calls ostensibly an easier task . Instead noise had no discernible effect on discrimination of parental and nestmate calls even though it reduced overall responses to adult calls as shown previously . While our results show no long term disruptive effect of noise on development they also show no adjustments to sustained noise that might help nestlings better cope with noisy conditions . | In the lab noise can disrupt development of auditory skills needed later in life. In the first field test for such disruptions we exposed developing nestlings to noise. We then tested their responses to the calls of their own vs other parents and broods. Noise had no clear effect on how well nestlings could discriminate these calls. Conversely noise reared nestlings showed no adjustments to better cope with noise. |
S0003347220300993 | Wild ungulates can recognize certain predators without previous experience but this innate ability may be relaxed under domestication . Using nave dairy calves | Predator nave dairy calves delayed feeding in the presence of coyote odour. Coyote odour increased startle responses compared to nonpredator odours. Domestic calves can innately recognize a predator cue under relaxed selection. |
S0003347220301007 | Risk taking behaviours that are optimal in one context may be suboptimal in a different context suggesting that individuals with bold behaviours will experience increased predation risk . Yet in some instances bold individuals experience lower predation . Thus there is not always a direct trade off between boldness and predation risk . To better understand the relationship between boldness and predation risk suboptimal behaviours must be viewed within the context of an organism s entire integrated antipredator strategy . Using freshwater snails exposed to a predator cue we examined whether quickly re emerging from the shell was a repeatable carryover behaviour that was tied to behavioural and morphological antipredator traits . Slow emerging snails invested in morphological shell defence and remained in the predator environment whereas quick emerging snails consistently avoided the predator environment and did not invest in shell defences . Therefore slow emerging snails used a sit and wait antipredator strategy by relying on their shells for protection and were less likely to avoid the predator environment conversely quick emerging snails used an avoidance strategy by consistently associating with the water s surface and investing less in shell defences . A path analysis of these antipredator traits indicates that the carryover effect of bold behaviour may be an important factor that mediates complementary behavioural and morphological traits that reduce predation risks . This study supports the behavioural character hypothesis which suggests that boldness is a latent variable upon which selection can act and thereby shape a variety of quasi independent traits . According to this perspective selection is not acting on a single antipredator behavioural trait in isolation but rather on an integrated antipredator strategy that is facilitated by individual differences in carryover risk taking behaviour . | Latency to re emerge from shell was repeatable over time and across predator contexts. The carryover effect of boldness influences antipredator traits. Bold and shy snails use different antipredator strategies. Evolution may act on boldness as a latent variable to shape antipredator traits. |
S0003347220301019 | Nest construction is a widespread behaviour that is a critical fitness investment in many taxa . Nests provide stable environments for offspring production development and at times adult survival . Avian nest structure and composition has been linked to insulative properties and the reduction of energetic requirements for incubating females . However it is unclear how and why nest structure varies across landscapes within and between species especially in cavity nesting species . Here we examined nest size in a secondary cavity nester the mountain chickadee | Nest sizes of mountain chickadees were not related to environmental temperatures. Reproductive parameters were not associated with nest size or temperature. Nest sizes of returning females were highly repeatable across years. |
S0003347220301020 | An optimal foraging strategy often requires identifying and choosing the larger amount of food in the presence of multiple options in order to maximize food intake . Food quantity estimation frequently depends on the perceptual ability to segregate food from the surrounding background . In human and nonhuman animals it has recently been shown that the perception of food size is affected by the size of the background on which food is presented with a tendency to overestimate food items encircled by a small background . This perceptual bias resembles an illusory effect known as the Delboeuf illusion . We investigated whether this bias occurs in five fish species zebrafish | Food size perception could be affected by the context in a suboptimal way. The Delboeuf illusion leads humans to overestimate food size in a small context. We investigated whether this bias occurs in five teleost fish species. The five species had similar performances when presented with illusory trials. Their perceptual bias operated in the opposite direction to that of humans. |
S0003347220301032 | Breeding success should increase with prior knowledge of the surrounding environment which is dependent upon an animal s ability to evaluate habitat . Prospecting for nesting locations and migratory stopover sites are well established behaviours among bird species . We assessed whether three species of California dabbling ducks mallards | GPS telemetry 1 week prehatch reveals brood site prospecting behaviour in waterfowl. Pond visits provide information on current habitat quality and conditions. Dabbling ducks select brood sites during nest recess wetland visits. Late brooding hens visit more ponds suggesting use of public information. Hens may crowdsource public information from the presence of other broods. |
S0003347220301123 | All activity imposes costs but animals can often alter the timing of their activity to reduce these costs . Metabolic costs of activity are especially high during seasons of energy deficits but the extent to which animals can adjust their activity timing to reduce metabolic costs is unclear . Here we test the hypothesis that the timing of small mammal activity during winter minimizes heat loss . Using motion activated cameras deployed under snow we show that a widely distributed nocturnal small mammal species white footed mouse | Small mammal species used different strategies to avoid cold winter temperatures. switched from nocturnal to diurnal activity on cold days. avoided activity entirely on cold days. Plasticity in activity timing reduced energy lost as heat. |
S0003347220301135 | Males sometimes engage in fights over contested resources such as access to mates in this case fighting behaviour may be adjusted based on the value they place on the females . Resource value can have two components . First males can assess the quality of females which constitutes an objective assessment of RV . Second internal state such as previous mating experience can also influence motivation to fight thus constituting a subjective assessment of RV . If mating opportunities are scarce and available females have a major impact on the lifetime reproductive success of males then fighting can be fatal in this situation it is uncertain whether males would adjust fighting behaviour based on RV . We found that both female quality that is virginity and male mating status influenced fighting intensity between males of the entomopathogenic nematode | Male entomopathogenic nematodes frequently fight to death for access to mates. In dyadic contests males fight more intensely over high quality virgin females. In dyadic contests mated males win over virgin males. In dyadic contests resident males win over intruder males. |
S0003347220301147 | All songbirds have their own species specific song and vocal variety among individuals of the same species is used for communication . Some aspects of vocal variety have been shown to relate to sender characteristics and thus to convey a potential message to receivers . During playback experiments individuals show different response patterns which provide evidence for perception and thus meaning of the vocal variety . Here we tested the impact of two types of vocal variety syllable diversity and syllable switching in the common chiffchaff | Syllable diversity is likely to be a fixed trait signalling male quality. Syllable switching may be a dynamic trait related to motivation. Birdsong is highly dynamic during vocal interactions. Some parameters follow opposite patterns during vocal interactions. Studying behaviour at high temporal resolution offers advanced insights. |
S0003347220301160 | Courtship can have multiple nonexclusive functions and it often plays a central role in mate choice . In the polyandrous cannibalistic spider | males perform vibratory courtship to suppress female aggression. Females perceive variation in courtship quality but mating success is not affected. Males performing many shudders and long copulations sire more offspring. Females may cryptically bias paternity based on male courtship performance. The sterilizing treatment by irradiation conferred a paternity advantage. |
S0003347220301202 | Active guidance of vocal learning by conspecifics has recently been found in several species including some cetaceans and primates . However in the zebra finch | Social interaction enhances song learning in some birds but mechanisms are unknown. Zebra finch parents naturally display contingent responses to juvenile plastic song. Song learning significantly correlated with contingent maternal fluff ups. Juvenile song accuracy positively correlated with contingent paternal song. Parental gestural and vocal feedback may reinforce song learning. |
S0003347220301226 | In group living species particularly cooperative breeders all group members contribute to various behaviours but there is considerable variation between and within individuals in their contributions . While it is well established that there is variation due to differences in the costs and benefits for individuals of different sex age and dominance status shorter term social internal and environmental factors are also likely to be important . Sentinel behaviour where individuals adopt a raised position to scan for danger while groupmates forage offers an opportunity to test hypotheses about context dependent differences in contributions to group behaviour . Here we used field experiments to manipulate the conspecific audience satiation state and perceived danger level of dwarf mongooses | Sentinel contributions are modified by social internal and environmental factors. Changes seen across behavioural levels initial bout bout quantity and within bouts. Simulated close audience decreased sentinel contributions. Supplementary feeding and alarm call playback increased sentinel contributions. Attentiveness of a sentinel can change with differing context. |
S0003347220301238 | Mating preferences vary among individuals in response to a number of factors such as the age and phenotype of the choosing individual . However studies addressing variation in mating preferences generally focus on female preferences and usually are limited to choice within a species . Variation in preferences likely also exists at the species boundary affecting an individuals propensity to mate with heterospecific individuals . In darters Percidae | We investigated variation in male preference for conspecific females. Categorically large males preferred conspecific females while small males did not. As a continuous measure male size predicted preference for conspecifics. Male red coloration did not correlate with preference for conspecifics. Variation in male mate choice may be a function of male age or quality. |
S000334722030124X | Interindividual variation in cognitive ability has been widely reported across a diverse array of taxa and has recently been modelled as a broad consequence of a speedaccuracy trade off . This trade off can result in alternative cognitive phenotypes which in turn could be associated with differences in behavioural and life history traits . While a growing body of literature suggests that performance in certain cognitive and behavioural traits do covary multiple traits must be measured at these different levels to understand how differences in cognition determine variation in other traits . We tested for the presence of distinct cognitive phenotypes in the honey bee | Multiple cognitive traits define a cognitive axis in honey bees. There are two distinct cognitive phenotypes among honey bee foragers. Slow and fast bees conform to the predictions of a speedaccuracy trade off. The two cognitive phenotypes differ in their behaviour and life history traits. |
S0003347220301251 | Animals use behavioural cues from others to make decisions in a variety of contexts . There is growing evidence from a range of taxa that information about the locations of food patches can spread through a population via social connections . However it is not known whether information about their quality transmits similarly . We studied foraging behaviour in a population of wild songbirds with known social associations and tested whether flock members use social information about the profitability of patches to inform their foraging decisions . We provided artificial patches that appeared identical but were either profitable or unprofitable . If information about patch profitability spreads via social associations we predicted that empty feeders would only be sampled by individuals that are less connected to each other than expected by chance . In contrast we found that individuals recorded at empty feeders were more closely associated with each other than predicted by a null model simulating random arrival of individuals mirroring a pattern of increased connectedness among individuals recorded at full feeders . We then simulated arrival under network based diffusion of information and found that the observed pattern at both full and empty feeders matched predictions derived from this post hoc model . Our results suggest that foraging songbirds use social cues only about the location of potential food sources but not their profitability . These findings agree with the hypothesis that individuals balance the relative economic costs of using different information where the costs of personally sampling a patch upon arrival is low relative to the cost of searching for patches . This study extends previous work on information spread through animal social networks by suggesting important links between how individuals use information at different stages of the acquisition process and the emerging patterns of patch use at the level of the population . | Songbirds used social information to find food. Social connections predicted patch discovery i.e. order of arrival of individuals. Upon discovery individuals gathered personal information about patch quality. Social and personal information is used at different phases while foraging. The relative costs of social and personal information predict information use. |
S0003347220301263 | Parasitoids need to find their plant feeding hosts in complex environments that contain multiple other plant and insect species . They usually rely on herbivore induced plant volatiles to locate herbivore infested plants from a distance and their foraging efficiency may be reduced when volatile information is not available . Downwind foraging during times when high wind speeds prevent odour guided upwind flights may create foraging situations with limited accessibiliy to volatile information . We hypothesized that parasitoids forage less efficiently by landing on nonhost damaged or undamaged plants when they are forced to fly downwind and tested this in a wind tunnel experiment . We released the parasitoid | Downwind flying parasitoids foraged less efficiently than upwind flying parasitoids. Upwind flying parasitoids had access to HIPVs from all herbivore infested plants. Low HIPV availability reduced between plant movement of downwind flying parasitoids. Downwind flying parasitoids foraged more intensively on nonhost infested plants. Intensive foraging on nonhost infested plants delayed host finding. |
S0003347220301275 | Individual variation in resource acquisition prior to mating can influence the expression of sexually selected traits and mating dynamics . One important resource that has the potential to affect mating is water however little is known about whether variation in individual hydration status impacts mating behaviour . Here we investigate the effects of short term water deprivation on mating behaviour in the harvestman | The effect of hydration status on mating behaviours is not well established. Water deprivation significantly affected mating behaviours of harvestmen. The behaviours affected depended on the sex deprived of water. We suggest water is an important but often overlooked resource in sexual selection. |
S0003347220301287 | Killing of unrelated young by sexually nave male mammals is taxonomically widespread but in many species males subsequently show paternal care or at least do not harm their own young . This dramatic and important change is due to a shift in paternal state rather than to recognition of young the mother or the location in which mating occurred . This transition from infanticidal to paternal behaviour is timed so that the inhibition of infanticide is synchronized with the birth of their own young . Ejaculation followed by cohabitation with the pregnant female causes this transition but the precise stimuli from the female remain elusive . However changes in social status also cause changes in infanticide . The switch from infanticide is accompanied by physiological change in the male that can be detected by both females and pups . Hormonal changes have been implicated in the switch but establishing causal links has been difficult . Recent neuroanatomical studies show that pup odours activate the vomeronasal organ and its efferent projections to induce infanticide . The emergence of paternal care depends on the inability of the vomeronasal organ to detect pup odours . In the absence of vomeronasal input pup odours activate a conserved parental circuit and induce caregiving behaviour . An emerging picture is of complex antagonistic circuits competing for behavioural expression which allow for males to commit infanticide when they may benefit from such activity but ensure that they do not damage their fitness by killing their own young . However we stress the need for more work on the neural mechanisms that mediate this process . | Male mammals may be infanticidal but become paternal before offspring s birth. This typically requires copulation then cohabitation with the pregnant female. Various hormones may mediate the change to paternal care. The vomeronasal organ mediates infanticide and is shut down to enable paternal care. Specific brain sites that mediate paternal care are being discovered. |
S0003347220301299 | Pattern formation and collective behaviour in animal aggregations is highly complex and occurs across many scales over a wide range of environmental conditions . The patterns found in collective behaviour may be modulated by the environmental habitat in which a group is located . Here we consider whether habitat context influences the collective behaviour of fish schools under threat of predation in a dynamic salt marsh system . By comparing collective responses of wild forage fish prior to and during predator attack across three environmental contexts we examine whether schooling state is influenced by the habitat that fish schools reside in . Our results indicate that habitat context had a much stronger effect on collective state relative to predation . The habitats studied induced changes in the behavioural state of fish schools compared to a free field context which demonstrates an alteration of the collective behaviours performed by the school . This suggests that other ecological factors such as the local environment plays a larger role than predation risk in structuring the spatial and temporal group level patterns found in collective behaviour . | We examined collective behaviour in schooling Gulf menhaden in natural habitats. Habitat context induced changes in collective behavioural state of fish schools. Habitat had a greater influence on collective state of fish schools than predation. |
S0003347220301317 | Individuals of many species utter distress calls when are attacked or trapped by a predator . These vocalizations can help them to escape but may also help conspecifics to reduce their predation risk by inducing antipredator behaviours . Calls can encode information that modulates these antipredator responses and the nonlinearity and fear hypothesis proposes that complex nonlinear calls may trigger more fearful responses because they encode higher levels of stress . We tested this hypothesis with the weeping lizard | Distress calls with nonlinearity may trigger more fearful responses. These responses may be modulated by the scents in the environment. We tested these predictions with the weeping lizard. Playback experiments showed that calls with nonlinearity were more scary. Fear was higher when lizards were with their own scents at home. |
S0003347220301329 | Why females mate multiply has been a long standing question in evolutionary ecology . In attempts to answer this question many studies on diverse taxa have highlighted various costs and benefits associated with reproduction . However how the costs of mating differ from the costs of harassment and whether they vary with environmental conditions are unknown . To explore this we compared various fitness traits of singly mated | Independent of the environment repeatedly mating with the same male benefits females. Overall females living in wet environments live longer but produce fewer eggs. Costs of mating and harassment for female seed beetles depend on the environment. |
S0003347220301354 | In bumblebees dominance behaviour contributes to the regulation of the reproductive division of labour between queens and workers . Towards the end of the colony cycle at the onset of the competition phase reproductive workers will establish a dominance hierarchy and challenge the reproductive monopoly of the queen by laying unfertilized male destined eggs . However it has been suggested that the dominance and reproductive hierarchies in bumblebee workers are not completely aligned . By performing manipulative experiments and observing both aggressive behaviour and ovarian activation in | Dominance and reproductive hierarchies are not completely aligned in bumblebees. Reintroduction of a queen causes worker ovary regression and restores harmony. Worker competition is initiated by dominance displays of reproductive sisters. Workers are aggressed based on their size rather than their reproductive state. Subordinate small reproductive workers avoid nestmate aggression. |
S0003347220301366 | Social interactions among individuals play a central role in behavioural ecology and studying cohesion of monogamous pairs is important to understand their social relationships . Here we tested five hypotheses to investigate patterns of pair cohesion in an obligate monogamous mammal the Eurasian beaver | Beavers exhibit low pair cohesion with pair members being on average 500. None. m apart. This may increase territory defence efficiency via enhanced patrolling effort. Low pair cohesion may also reduce predation risk and competition for food. Low pair cohesion might be caused by the beavers monogamous mating system. |
S000334722030138X | Constructing a nest within a mating territory provides a clear benefit to the resident particularly by improving the opportunity to mate . It is unclear whether animals who use nests exclusively for reproductive purposes account for either the effort invested or the resulting increase in mating potential when valuing their territories . We sought to explicitly reveal a nest s added subjective resource value through within group comparison of aggressive behaviour before and after nest construction . An increase in aggression following construction would indicate that the resident perceives greater subjective value in his territory and thus values the nest . Threespine stickleback | Resident fish exhibited equivalent levels of aggression before and after nesting. Behaviours were robust repeatable and significantly intercorrelated. Behavioural measures of territorial aggression were not predictive of nesting outcome. Territorial aggression in stickleback may be assayed without regard to nesting cycle. |
S0003347220301391 | Sex differences in anxiety related behaviours have been documented in many animals and are notable in human populations . A major goal in behaviour research is to understand why and how sex differences in cognitive emotional states like anxiety arise and are regulated throughout life . Anxiety allows individuals to detect and respond to threats . Mating is a candidate regulator for anxiety because threats are likely to change often in sex specific ways when individuals shift to a postmating reproductive state . However we know little about how mating mediates anxiety related behaviour in males and females or about how males might influence female anxiety via seminal proteins transferred during mating . To address this gap we examined anxiety related behaviour in the fruit fly | Many animals display anxiety but few studies have compared males and females. In fruit flies we found no sex differences in anxiety like behaviour. Mating could modulate anxiety directly or via male ejaculate proteins. We found that anxiety was independent from mating and the sex peptide protein. Anxiety is not part of the postmating behavioural shift in fruit flies. |
S0003347220301408 | Kleptoparasitism is a foraging strategy where one individual steals a procured food item from another individual . Individual kleptoparasites can optimize their foraging strategy by targeting more profitable hosts or by modifying their behaviour to expend less energy than they would by foraging independently . Herring gulls | Kleptoparasitism or stealing another s food can be an efficient foraging strategy. Herring gulls do not kleptoparasitize Atlantic puffins at random. Gulls preferentially targeted more profitable hosts. Focal gulls attacked 7.7 of approaching provisioning puffins. Gulls were successful in more than 25 of attacks on landed puffins. |
S0003347220301494 | Eavesdropping on vocal signals allows animals to gather information about conspecifics . For males eavesdropping can be a low risk method for determining the dominance status and motivation of rivals . Adult southern white rhino males | Contact calls of adult southern white rhino males signal their dominance status. There is an emphasis on the repetition of exhalations in males courtship calls. Males discriminate between the calls of subordinate and territorial males. Eavesdropping on intruders calls can help males to better defend their territory. |
S0003347220301524 | Flexibility in foraging behaviour is a key individual trait promoting adaptive responses to changing environmental conditions . Such flexibility can be especially pronounced in marine predators that forage in highly dynamic environments and pursue ephemeral and patchily distributed prey . Individual characteristics social interactions and resource availability may all promote behavioural flexibility which in turn may foster divergence in foraging tactics within populations . The adoption of specific foraging tactics by individuals from the same population could be driven by a complex mixture of intrinsic and extrinsic factors . We GPS tracked chick rearing parents of a sexually size dimorphic avian marine top predator the Scopolis shearwater | Breeding shearwaters performed foraging trips with diverse food searching behaviour. Trips were classified as mainly involving coarse scale or fine scale foraging. Coarse scale trips were mostly performed by females and with strong wind conditions. Sex differences were likely related to sex differences in morphology. Sex specific foraging tactics could buffer intersexual competition for resources. |
S000334722030155X | Song learning is generally assumed to be beneficial for a young songbird but merely incidental without costs or benefits for the older song tutors . In the present study we contrast two mutually exclusive hypotheses about the tutor tutee relationship that it is cooperative or at least mutually tolerant with tutor and tutee mutually benefiting from their relationship versus that it is competitive with tutor and tutee competing over territory so that one or the other suffers negative fitness consequences of their relationship . In a field study of three consecutive cohorts of song sparrows | Song learning is generally assumed to benefit the tutee but not the tutor. We investigate whether song learning is competitive or cooperative. We determined from whom a young bird learned most of his songs. We then determined how long the tutee and his tutor survived subsequently. The more songs a tutee learns from his tutor the longer they both survive. |
S0003347220301561 | The human assisted movement of species beyond their native range facilitates novel interactions between invaders and native species that can determine whether an introduced species becomes invasive and the nature of any consequences for native communities . Avoiding costly interactions through recognition and avoidance can be compromised by the navety of native species to novel invaders and vice versa . We tested this hypothesis using the common wall lizard | We test response to scent cues in mediating native non native lizard interactions. Native species differed in their response to scent cues from the invading species. Non native lizards responded more towards cues of the most distantly related native. Behavioural response to scent cues may determine interactions and invasion impacts. |
S0003347220301573 | Avian brood parasites are expected to select host nests according to characteristics that maximize offspring fitness such as reduced probability of ectoparasitism . Spotless starlings | Brood parasitic starling females do not randomly parasitize nests of conspecifics. Starlings choose nests with fewer. fly spots on their eggs to parasitize. This preference may be aimed at avoiding nests with a higher risk of ectoparasitism. |
S0003347220301585 | We investigated the ontogenetic changes of two call types the inquiry call and the response call which comprise an interactive communication system in Spix s disc winged bats | Both inquiry and response calls showed ontogenetic changes during maturation. Calls seemed to be functional since early stages. Most ontogenetic changes in response calls were sex dependent. Calls show high levels of individuality early in life. |
S0003347220301603 | In many brood rearing species suitable nesting resources are needed for nest construction . Here we used males of a small marine fish the sand goby | Choice of nesting resources can have important fitness consequences. In a marine fish male size resource characteristics and nesting behaviour were linked. Effect of body size on choice decisions and nesting behaviours was context dependent. Nest architecture also matters arched resources were more popular than flat ones. |
S0003347220301615 | Courtship displays have been traditionally considered stereotyped behaviours . Many elaborate courtships are displayed in specific locations or in courts prepared by the displaying individuals . Sudden environmental events may alter the spatial structure of the displaying site and individuals should be able to cope with such disruptions . In some mating systems courtship is the only or main trait used in mate choice . This is the case in lek mating systems where male mating success is highly skewed and intense sexual selection may drive the evolution of elaborate courtship . The golden collared manakin is a lekking species of the Neotropical forests . Males have an elaborate courtship display that includes a series of acrobatic jumps within a court delimited by small saplings . The courtship ends with a jump on one of the saplings called the mating sapling which invites the female to copulate . The display of each male follows a consistent routine that males establish at the beginning of the reproductive season . We hypothesized that males possess behavioural flexibility to adapt their courtship behaviour to unpredictable environmental changes . We investigated the effects of a sudden disruption of the court configuration by placing a piece of bark on the mating sapling . Males gradually established a new display sequence with an alternative mating sapling demonstrating a high level of behavioural flexibility that suggests the involvement of motor learning . When the bark was removed some males reverted to the original sequence showing retention of the original display sequence . Our study provides evidence for the involvement of motor learning in the establishment and adjustment of elaborate courtship displays . | Male manakins modify their courtship after alteration of their court. The gradual change of the courtship sequence indicates motor learning. Some birds deploy the original sequence after court structure is restored. Elaborate courtship appears to be established and adjusted through motor learning. |
S0003347220301627 | It is widely accepted that hunger state and food availability affect mating behaviour . Hunger state decreases mating activity because of a trade off between foraging and mating behaviour except for the cases where females obtain material benefit from mating and therefore increase copulation rate when they are starved . Similarly food availability is believed to increase the copulation rate . However the interaction between hunger state and food availability has rarely been demonstrated . It is empirically known that | Starvation increased the copulation rate of. This effect was observed only when food was available. Starvation decreased the copulation rate when food was not available. Hunger state and food availability act synergistically on mating behaviour. |
S0003347220301639 | Captive breeding is a conservation strategy that often results in behavioural changes in animals born and reared in captivity . Culturally transmitted behaviours such as learned vocal signals are particularly prone to the effects of captive breeding because captive animals have limited opportunities to learn these behaviours from wild animals . Changes in learned behaviour could affect the success of reintroduction programmes once captive animals are released into the wild . We tested for vocal divergence of learned calls in Puerto Rican parrots | Captive breeding can cause changes in cultural behaviours like vocal signals. We tested for vocal divergence in captive and wild populations of Puerto Rican parrots. We found evidence of vocal divergence in four parrot populations. Some parrots translocated between populations adopted new vocal signals. Dialects in this species may have resulted from rearing practices in captivity. |
S0003347220301640 | Animal sociality arises from the cumulative effects of both individual social decisions and environmental factors . While juveniles social interactions with parents prior to independence shape later life sociality in most bird and mammal species at least one sex undergoes an early life dispersal before first year reproduction . The social associations from this period could also have implications for later life yet are rarely characterized . Here we derived predictions from available examples of juvenile groups in the literature and then used three cohorts of juvenile hihi | Early life social behaviour once young leave parents is poorly understood. We characterize group structure and social associations in a passerine bird. Juveniles associated with unrelated juvenile peers rather than siblings or parents. Social structure resembled gangs which have few empirical examples. Describing social structure can help us understand early life social environment. |
S0003347220301652 | Studies on the strategic rules used by fighting animals usually attempt to categorize fights as falling into one of two discrete types self assessment and mutual assessment . With self assessment losers give up when they cross an individual costs threshold without reference to the fighting ability of their opponent while in mutual assessment losers compare their own RHP to that of their opponent and give up if and when they determine themselves to be the weaker rival . However it has recently been suggested that this discontinuous view of variation in assessment strategy might be an oversimplification . This is because use of information on self RHP opponent RHP and resource value is likely to show continuous variation across individuals populations and species . While the possibility of this continuous variation is often ignored we suggest that we can gain a better understanding of decision making during fights by considering the relative contributions of these three information sources to the giving up decisions of losers . Here we use ternary plots to demonstrate how the relative contribution of self RHP opponent RHP and resource value to decision rules can be illustrated using simulated and real contest data as an aid to achieving greater depth in discussions of variation in assessment rules . | Animal contests are typically classified into distinct categories. These categories represent scenarios that have been explored in contest theory. Models are based on assumptions about how losers decide to give up. Losers might also use information in ways that have yet to be modelled. We demonstrate a means of illustrating continuous variation in contest strategies. |
S0003347220301664 | When making decisions individuals can be influenced by both the range of options available to them and intrinsic factors such as their own body size or condition . The current understanding of the topic comes mostly from studies of foraging behaviour and mate choice whereas other fitness related decisions have been the subject of much less attention . Here we investigated how the number of available options along with body size and condition affect the nesting resource choices of male sand gobies | The decisions that individuals make are influenced by a myriad of factors. We investigated resource choice decisions in a nest building fish. We found that choice decisions were affected by body size and resource type and size. Resource choices were independent of body condition and the number of options. Hence both intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence decisions over resource use. |
S0003347220301676 | Temporary associations with conspecifics provide critical opportunities for the acquisition and development of socioecological skills especially in species where these interaction opportunities are not readily available . In fact social interactions can have far reaching consequences for the cultural and communicative repertoire on both the species and population level . However to what extent interaction rates are linked to association patterns which depend on individual and ecological factors is often overlooked . Here we examined the sources of variation in immatures social behaviour in relation to both activity and partner type in one Sumatran and one Bornean population of wild orang utans | We examined social interactions in infant orang utans of two wild populations. Analyses focused on three specific social activities with different partners. Study site and presence of specific associates affected interaction rates. Population differences in interaction time mirror differences in sociability. |
S0003347220301688 | Optimizing reproductive success is an essential part of evolution for both sexes . Females can optimize mating by avoiding superfluous mating advances and insemination since both take time away from other activities and may incur costs related to sperm receipt . While many separate sexed organisms are known to exhibit mate avoidance much less is known about this for simultaneous hermaphrodites . We addressed this here using a simultaneously hermaphroditic species that can choose to mate in either of the two sex roles during each mating interaction . Recently avoidance behaviours in response to natural matings were observed in the hermaphroditic pond snail | Reproduction can be optimized by avoiding surplus mating advances and inseminations. Being inseminated takes time and can incur costs related to sperm receipt. Simultaneous hermaphrodites cope with this while serving both reproductive interests. Accessory gland proteins and or sperm are found to induce crawl out and biting. Earlier reported avoidance behaviours seem to be used to discourage new sperm donors. |
S0003347220301718 | Social information percolates through a variety of channels to influence animal decision making with a notable effect on reproductive and feeding success . Colonial central place foragers can reduce time to locate ephemeral food patches and or increase foraging rate by following their informed peers parasitizing direction of returning successful foragers or being intentionally informed on distant food locations at the colony . Ceremonial behaviours may also deliver social foraging information between mates which can spread inadvertently to neighbours . Here we tested for information display in Cape gannets | The ceremonial dance of Cape gannets may betray social foraging information. Dance features are related to characteristics of the previous foraging trip at sea. Overall dance duration provides cues on Cape gannet foraging effort. Dance behaviour may inform on feeding ground location direction and distance . |
S000334722030172X | The pace of life syndrome hypothesis posits that personality traits are linked to life history and fitness . Specifically fast paced individuals are predicted to be proactive with an earlier age at first reproduction a shorter life span and higher fecundity than slow paced individuals . Environmental conditions and sex differences may be important in maintaining behavioural and life history variation in populations and may influence the covariance of personality with life history or lifetime fitness . However these effects are rarely tested together . We investigated whether the occurrence of a resource pulse during adulthood altered the associations between personality and life history traits or lifetime offspring production in adult North American red squirrels | We found no evidence of an association between personality and life history. Aggression was associated with higher lifetime fitness in females. In males the association between fitness and personality was context specific. |
S0003347220301731 | Dominance hierarchies structure the adult social networks of many mammals . To identify the conditions that support the establishment of stable hierarchical relationships within groups of familiar rivals we explored the ontogeny of spatial social and communicative behaviour among male northern elephant seals | We explored spatial social and communicative behaviour in male elephant seals. Subadults 6 years showed high variability in spatial social and vocal behaviour. Adults had long residency times small home ranges and familiar adult competitors. Adult vocal displays were stable and individually unique facilitating recognition. |
S0003347220301743 | Dispersal is a fundamental ecological process that on an individual level is associated with intrinsic and fixed personality traits such as boldness . However it is unknown whether personality traits or behavioural syndromes might change as a consequence of dispersal itself . We analysed 14 GPS collared grey wolves | We tested the hypothesis that wolf boldness increases during dispersal. We used avoidance of human habitat elements as a proxy for boldness. Wolves strongly avoided human elements before dispersing. Wolf avoidance of human elements decreased substantially during dispersal. This shift in avoidance persisted after the establishment of a new territory. |
S0003347220301755 | In polyandrous species males invest significant resources in producing large and high quality ejaculates . As ejaculates are costly males are expected to modulate their investment in response to social cues associated with the expected level of sperm competition or mating opportunity to anticipate future mating conditions . Another consequence of ejaculate costs is that the increase in ejaculate production may be traded against traits linked to mate acquisition . In such cases the effect of this anticipatory plasticity in ejaculate investment on a male s reproductive success will depend on the balance between postcopulatory benefits and precopulatory costs in the sociosexual context subsequently encountered . Here we used the guppy | Male guppies upregulate sperm production with high female availability. This is traded against courtship with potential consequences for mating success. With high female availability the upregulation reduces the risk of sperm depletion. With low female availability the upregulation reduces mating success. Overall effects are minor suggesting low mismatching costs of sperm plasticity. |
S0003347220301767 | Living in groups can benefit individuals in many ways including in innovative problem solving . Several hypotheses have suggested mechanisms to explain why larger groups disproportionately outperform smaller groups including the skill pool and pool of competence effects . However disentangling these potential mechanisms from the effects of group size alone has been challenging . Here we first outline key ways in which group size can shape performance in innovative problem solving . We then detail the nonlinear nature of the mathematical relationship between group size and various measures of group performance . Finally we use simulations to confirm that measures of group performance in innovative problem solving scale nonlinearly with group size even in the absence of any other effect . Our study provides guidance on how best to evaluate hypotheses about group composition on innovative problem solving and clarity to help future studies make appropriate assumptions when developing null hypotheses against which to test their empirical data . | Larger groups innovate and solve problems faster and more often than smaller groups. Empirical studies of this relationship typically invoke elaborate explanations. Explanations commonly include among others the pool of competence effect. A nonlinear relationship between group size and group performance is expected. Such a relationship provides no evidence for effects other than group size. |
S0003347220301779 | Vocal performance an animal s ability to produce physically challenging vocalizations can reflect a signaller s overall condition and can be a reliable signal of quality . It has been suggested recently that songbirds improve vocal performance through recent practice during intense dawn singing . We tested whether recent practice improves vocal performance in swamp sparrows | We tested whether vocal performance improves across the morning. We extensively recorded 11 laboratory reared song tutored swamp sparrows. Vocal performance improved with time and the total number of songs performed. Developmentally stressed birds showed greater improvements. |
S0003347220301780 | Quantifying the direction and strength of mate preference is essential to improve our understanding of sexual selection . Experimental designs however often do not consider how individuals evaluate and compare the available options which may affect the results significantly . Preferences are often assumed to be absolute with individuals assigning a fixed absolute value to a cue or potential partner they encounter . However individuals may instead also compare the available options in which case the social context plays an essential role in the preference for each potential partner . Here we investigated the importance of considering the choosers evaluation process in mate preference tests . Using a mate preference study on wild great tit | The choice for a mate is not only made on absolute quality. The social context affects the choice for a mate. Individuals can use comparisons between options for their choice. Birds used a combination of absolute and comparative evaluation of stimulus groups. How species evaluate mates is crucial for the choice of experimental design. |
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