Data from: Predictable males and unpredictable females: repeatability of sociability in eastern water dragons

There is growing evidence for consistent among-individual variation in individual sociability (e.g., tendency to be sociable) in a number of species. However, sexes often differ in their social behaviors, as well as the selection pressures which they experience. This may translate into differences in repeatability of sociability, although this has not yet been tested. Here, we investigated whether eastern water dragons (Intellegama leseurii) exhibited evidence of consistent among-individual variation (i.e., repeatability) in 4 different measurements of sociability. Specifically, we measured sociability in 4 ways (degree, centrality, proportion of time spent being social, and number of preferences), and tested whether there was evidence for sex differences in the repeatability of these sociability measurements, or whether observed levels of repeatability could be explained by a stable social environment. Our findings provide new evidence for sex differences in social personality: we found that males were significantly repeatable in 3 of 4 sociability measurements (degree, centrality, and proportion of time spent being social), whereas females were not. Further, we found that these differences were not a result of differences in the dynamics of the social environment. We discuss our findings in the context of sexual selection, as well as sex differences in the evolutionary drivers of social behavior

Raw data_Strickland & Frere

Raw spatial data used for all analysis described in article entitled "Predictable males and unpredictable females: repeatability of sociability in eastern water dragons"

SimulatedGenotypeData

Genotypes simulated using the program Conancestry (Wang 2011) for 100 pairs at each of 6 levels of relatedness. Allele frequencies and genotyping error are set to match those found in the real dolphin genotype data in the study

Cooperation and strategic complementarity: An experiment with two voluntary contribution mechanism games with interior equilibria

In public goods game experiments, designs implementing non-linearities in the production are less common than the standard linear setting, especially so under the assumption that the private goods production and public goods aggregation function are both non-linear. We study a voluntary contribution game (VCM) in which returns from the private project have diminishing marginal benefits and the contributions to the joint project exhibit pairwise strategic complementarities. As a control, we use a public goods game with an identical private production technology, but with the standard linear public goods aggregation. In addition to the aggregation technology, we manipulate the group size variable: In both treatments, the subjects will first play a VCM game in groups of five for 20 rounds, after which the group size is reduced to two, and the game is played for another 20 rounds. A significant over-contribution is observed in both settings when the group size is five. The rate of over-contribution is much higher under the complementary technology, but as predicted by theory, the contributions drop drastically when the group size is reduced from n = 5 to n = 2 within this treatment. Our experiment also provides empirical evidence that the so-called group size effect is present in both treatments, but it is much weaker under the standard aggregation technology

DolphinGenotypeData

Genotypes for 272 individual Tursiops aduncus at 4235 loc

Data from: Quality and quantity of genetic relatedness data affect the analysis of social structure

Kinship plays a fundamental role in the evolution of social systems and is considered a key driver of group living. To understand the role of kinship in the formation and maintenance of social bonds, accurate measures of genetic relatedness are critical. Genotype-by-sequencing technologies are rapidly advancing the accuracy and precision of genetic relatedness estimates for wild populations. The ability to assign kinship from genetic data varies depending on a species’ or population’s mating system and pattern of dispersal, and empirical data from longitudinal studies are crucial to validate these methods. We use data from a long-term behavioral study of a polygynandrous, bisexually philopatric marine mammal to measure accuracy and precision of parentage and genetic relatedness estimation against a known partial pedigree. We show that with moderate but obtainable sample sizes of approximately 4235 SNPs and 272 individuals, highly accurate parentage assignments and genetic relatedness coefficients can be obtained. Additionally, we subsample our data to quantify how data availability affects relatedness estimation and kinship assignment. Lastly, we conduct a social network analysis to investigate the extent to which accuracy and precision of relatedness estimation improve statistical power to detect an effect of relatedness on social structure. Our results provide practical guidance for minimum sample sizes and sequencing depth for future studies, as well as thresholds for post hoc interpretation of previous analyses

Data from: Quality and quantity of genetic relatedness data affect the analysis of social structure

Kinship plays a fundamental role in the evolution of social systems and is considered a key driver of group living. To understand the role of kinship in the formation and maintenance of social bonds, accurate measures of genetic relatedness are critical. Genotype-by-sequencing technologies are rapidly advancing the accuracy and precision of genetic relatedness estimates for wild populations. The ability to assign kinship from genetic data varies depending on a species’ or population’s mating system and pattern of dispersal, and empirical data from longitudinal studies are crucial to validate these methods. We use data from a long-term behavioral study of a polygynandrous, bisexually philopatric marine mammal to measure accuracy and precision of parentage and genetic relatedness estimation against a known partial pedigree. We show that with moderate but obtainable sample sizes of approximately 4235 SNPs and 272 individuals, highly accurate parentage assignments and genetic relatedness coefficients can be obtained. Additionally, we subsample our data to quantify how data availability affects relatedness estimation and kinship assignment. Lastly, we conduct a social network analysis to investigate the extent to which accuracy and precision of relatedness estimation improve statistical power to detect an effect of relatedness on social structure. Our results provide practical guidance for minimum sample sizes and sequencing depth for future studies, as well as thresholds for post hoc interpretation of previous analyses

Shrinking into the big city: influence of genetic and environmental factors on urban dragon lizard morphology and performance capacity

Urban wildlife faces a novel set of challenges resulting in selective pressure that can lead to population-level changes. We studied Australian water dragons (Intellagama lesueurii) from urban and natural populations to test if urban populations differed in body size, shape, and performance capacity. If urban-derived morphology has arisen through selection, we predicted distinct morphological differences between wild dragons from urban and natural areas in both adult and hatchling life-stages. Urban hatchlings were morphologically distinct (shorter body lengths and longer limbs) from natural populations, while urban adult males continued this trend but only for body size (shorter body lengths). We then experimentally reared hatchlings originating from urban and natural populations within urban- and natural-style enclosures (2 × 2 factorial design) for a year to determine if differences in morphology and performance capacity (sprint speed, endurance, and clinging ability) were related to either the individual’s origin population or developmental environment. Yearlings reared in urban-style enclosures, irrespective of population origin, had smaller body sizes compared to those from natural-style enclosures, suggesting developmental environment was affecting their morphology. Despite this difference in body size, yearling dragon performance capacity was not significantly different between treatments. Overall, this study provides evidence of a complex relationship driving urban-divergent morphology – whereby urban dragons emerge as smaller hatchlings with longer limbs (innate traits) and are then further influenced by the urban environments that they develop in (phenotypic plasticity); however, and potentially owing to behavioral, ecological, and demographical differences, these changes appear to be sex-specific

A framework for the identification of long-term social avoidance in longitudinal datasets

Animal sociality is of significant interest to evolutionary and behavioural ecologists, with efforts focused on the patterns, causes and fitness outcomes of social preference. However, individual social patterns are the consequence of both attraction to (preference for) and avoidance of conspecifics. Despite this, social avoidance has received far less attention than social preference. Here, we detail the necessary steps to generate a spatially explicit, iterative null model which can be used to identify non-random social avoidance in longitudinal studies of social animals.We specifically identify and detail parameters which will influence the validity of the model. To test the usability of this model, we applied it to two longitudinal studies of social animals (Eastern water dragons (Intellegama lesueurii) and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus)) to identify the presence of social avoidances. Using this model allowed us to identify the presence of social avoidances in both species. We hope that the framework presented here inspires interest in addressing this critical gap in our understanding of animal sociality, in turn allowing for a more holistic understanding of social interactions, relationships and structure