scholarly journals Shy birds play it safe: personality in captivity predicts risk responsiveness during reproduction in the wild

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 20140178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ella F. Cole ◽  
John L. Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Reproductive Investment ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Personality Types ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Trial Period ◽  
Life History Variation ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
In The Wild

Despite a growing body of evidence linking personality to life-history variation and fitness, the behavioural mechanisms underlying these relationships remain poorly understood. One mechanism thought to play a key role is how individuals respond to risk. Relatively reactive and proactive (or shy and bold) personality types are expected to differ in how they manage the inherent trade-off between productivity and survival, with bold individuals being more risk-prone with lower survival probability, and shy individuals adopting a more risk-averse strategy. In the great tit ( Parus major ), the shy–bold personality axis has been well characterized in captivity and linked to fitness. Here, we tested whether ‘exploration behaviour’, a captive assay of the shy–bold axis, can predict risk responsiveness during reproduction in wild great tits. Relatively slow-exploring (shy) females took longer than fast-exploring (bold) birds to resume incubation after a novel object, representing an unknown threat, was attached to their nest-box, with some shy individuals not returning within the 40 min trial period. Risk responsiveness was consistent within individuals over days. These findings provide rare, field-based experimental evidence that shy individuals prioritize survival over reproductive investment, supporting the hypothesis that personality reflects life-history variation through links with risk responsiveness.

Calcium effects on life-history traits in a wild population of the great tit (Parus major): analysis of long-term data at several spatial scales

Oecologia ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 159 (2) ◽  
pp. 463-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teddy Albert Wilkin ◽  
Andrew G. Gosler ◽  
Dany Garant ◽  
S. James Reynolds ◽  
Ben C. Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Wild Population ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Calcium Effects ◽  
Term Data

scholarly journals Repeatable aversion across threat types is linked with life-history traits but is dependent on how aversion is measured

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 172218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle L. Davidson ◽  
Michael S. Reichert ◽  
Jodie M. S. Crane ◽  
William O'Shea ◽  
John L. Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Inspection Time ◽  
Life History Variation ◽  
Risk Avoidance ◽  
Personality Research

Personality research suggests that individual differences in risk aversion may be explained by links with life-history variation. However, few empirical studies examine whether repeatable differences in risk avoidance behaviour covary with life-history traits among individuals in natural populations, or how these links vary depending on the context and the way risk aversion is measured. We measured two different risk avoidance behaviours (latency to enter the nest and inspection time) in wild great tits ( Parus major ) in two different contexts—response to a novel object and to a predator cue placed at the nest-box during incubation---and related these behaviours to female reproductive success and condition. Females responded equally strongly to both stimuli, and although both behaviours were repeatable, they did not correlate. Latency to enter was negatively related to body condition and the number of offspring fledged. By contrast, inspection time was directly explained by whether incubating females had been flushed from the nest before the trial began. Thus, our inferences on the relationship between risk aversion and fitness depend on how risk aversion was measured. Our results highlight the limitations of drawing conclusions about the relevance of single measures of a personality trait such as risk aversion.

scholarly journals Social learning in birds and its role in shaping a foraging niche

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1567) ◽  
pp. 969-977 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tore Slagsvold ◽  
Karen L. Wiebe
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Foraging Behaviour ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Passerine Birds ◽  
Cyanistes Caeruleus ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Foraging Niche ◽  
Evolutionary Consequences ◽  
Blue Tits

We briefly review the literature on social learning in birds, concluding that strong evidence exists mainly for predator recognition, song, mate choice and foraging. The mechanism of local enhancement may be more important than imitation for birds learning to forage, but the former mechanism may be sufficient for faithful transmission depending on the ecological circumstances. To date, most insights have been gained from birds in captivity. We present a study of social learning of foraging in two passerine birds in the wild, where we cross-fostered eggs between nests of blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus and great tits, Parus major . Early learning causes a shift in the foraging sites used by the tits in the direction of the foster species. The shift in foraging niches was consistent across seasons, as showed by an analysis of prey items, and the effect lasted for life. The fact that young birds learn from their foster parents, and use this experience later when subsequently feeding their own offspring, suggests that foraging behaviour can be culturally transmitted over generations in the wild. It may therefore have both ecological and evolutionary consequences, some of which are discussed.

Brood defence in the great tit (Parus major): the influence of life-history and habitat

1985 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Curio ◽  
K. Regelmann ◽  
U. Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Great Tit

Optimal life histories and food web position: linkages among somatic growth, reproductive investment, and mortality

2005 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 738-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
B J Shuter ◽  
N P Lester ◽  
J LaRose ◽  
C F Purchase ◽  
K Vascotto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Yellow Perch ◽  
Lake Trout ◽  
Reproductive Investment ◽  
Life History Variation ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Top Predators ◽  
Optimal Life Histories

Life history variation among 60 Ontario populations of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), walleye (Sander vitreus), cisco (Coregonus artedii), and yellow perch (Perca flavescens) is presented and interpreted using a biphasic model of individual growth that specifically accounts for the significant shift in energy allocation that accompanies sexual maturity. We show that the constraints imposed on life history variation by the character of the biphasic growth model are such that optimal life histories will exhibit associations among growth parameters, reproductive investment, and mortality that are largely consistent with associations evident in both our data set and earlier empirical studies; the von Bertalanffy growth parameter k varies with reproductive investment, and both k and investment vary with adult mortality. Our analysis suggests that within a food web, life history parameters will shift in a predictable fashion with the decreases in mortality expected as one moves from primary consumers up toward top predators. This expectation is supported by the differences in life history parameters that we observe between the two top predators in our data set (lake trout and walleye) and the two mid-trophic level consumers (cisco and yellow perch).

scholarly journals Personality and problem-solving performance explain competitive ability in the wild

2011 ◽  
Vol 279 (1731) ◽  
pp. 1168-1175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ella F. Cole ◽  
John L. Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Personality Trait ◽  
Competitive Ability ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Individual Quality ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Cognitive Trait ◽  
Behavioural Strategies

Competitive ability is a major determinant of fitness, but why individuals vary so much in their competitiveness remains only partially understood. One increasingly prevalent view is that realized competitive ability varies because it represents alternative strategies that arise because of the costs associated with competitiveness. Here we use a population of great tits ( Parus major ) to explore whether individual differences in competitive ability when foraging can be explained by two traits that have previously been linked to alternative behavioural strategies: the personality trait ‘exploration behaviour’ and a simple cognitive trait, ‘innovative problem-solving performance’. We assayed these traits under standardized conditions in captivity and then measured competitive ability at feeders with restricted access in the wild. Competitive ability was repeatable within individual males across days and correlated positively with exploration behaviour, representing the first such demonstration of a link between a personality trait and both competitive ability and food intake in the wild. Competitive ability was also simultaneously negatively correlated with problem-solving performance; individuals who were poor competitors were good at problem-solving. Rather than being the result of variation in ‘individual quality’, our results support the hypothesis that individual variation in competitive ability can be explained by alternative behavioural strategies.

scholarly journals Cognitive Ability Influences Reproductive Life History Variation in the Wild

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (19) ◽  
pp. 1808-1812 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ella F. Cole ◽  
Julie Morand-Ferron ◽  
Amy E. Hinks ◽  
John L. Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Life History Variation ◽  
Reproductive Life ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Reproductive Life History

scholarly journals Melatonin delays clutch initiation in a wild songbird

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Greives ◽  
Sjouke A. Kingma ◽  
Giulia Beltrami ◽  
Michaela Hau
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Wild Female ◽  
Melatonin Treatment ◽  
Free Living ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
First Clutch ◽  
Clutch Initiation ◽  
Reproductive Processes

The hormone melatonin is known to play an important role in regulating many seasonal changes in physiology, morphology and behaviour. In birds, unlike in mammals, melatonin has thus far been thought to play little role in timing seasonal reproductive processes. This view is mainly derived from laboratory experiments on male birds. This study tests whether melatonin is capable of influencing the timing of clutch initiation in wild female songbirds. Free-living female great tits ( Parus major ) treated with melatonin-filled implants prior to the breeding season initiated their first clutch of the season significantly later than females carrying an empty implant. Melatonin treatment did not affect clutch size. Further, melatonin treatment did not delay the onset of daily activity in the wild nor adversely affect body mass in captivity compared with controls. These data suggest a previously unknown role for this hormone in regulating the timing of clutch initiation in the wild.

scholarly journals Inhibitory control performance is repeatable across years and contexts in a wild bird population

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Davidson ◽  
Michael S Reichert ◽  
Jenny R Coomes ◽  
Ipek Kulahci ◽  
Ivan de la Hera ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Animal Cognition ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Behavioural Plasticity ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
In The Wild

Inhibitory control is one of several cognitive mechanisms required for self-regulation, decision making and attention towards tasks. Linked to a variety of maladaptive behaviours in humans, inhibitory control is expected to influence behavioural plasticity in animals in the context of foraging, social interaction, or responses to sudden changes in the environment. One widely used cognitive assay, the detour task, putatively tests inhibitory control. In this task, subjects must avoid impulsively touching transparent barriers positioned in front of food, and instead access the food by an alternative but known route. Recently it has been suggested that the detour task is unreliable and measures factors unrelated to inhibitory control, including motivation, previous experience and persistence. Consequently, there is growing uncertainty as to whether this task leads to erroneous interpretations about animal cognition and its links with socio-ecological traits. To address these outstanding concerns, we designed a variant of the detour task for wild great tits (Parus major) and deployed it at the nesting site of the same individuals across two spring seasons. This approach eliminated the use of food rewards, limited social confounds, and maximised motivation. We compared task performance in the wild with their performance in captivity when tested using the classical cylinder detour task during the non-breeding season. Task performance was temporally and contextually repeatable, and none of the confounds had any significant effect on performance, nor did they drive any of the observed repeatable differences among individuals. These results support the hypothesis that our assays captured intrinsic differences in inhibitory control. Instead of throwing the detour task out with the bathwater, we suggest confounds are likely system and experimental-design specific, and that assays for this potentially fundamental but largely overlooked source of behavioural plasticity in animal populations, should be validated and refined for each study system.

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