27 research outputs found
How do anthropogenic contaminants (ACs) affect behaviour? Multi-level analysis of the effects of copper on boldness in hermit crabs
Repeatability and consistency of individual behaviour in juvenile and adult Eurasian harvest mice
Animal personality and state–behaviour feedbacks: a review and guide for empiricists
An exciting area in behavioural ecology focuses on understanding why animals exhibit consistent among-individual differences in behaviour (animal personalities). Animal personality has been proposed to emerge as an adaptation to individual differences in state variables, leading to the question of why individuals differ consistently in state. Recent theory emphasizes the role that positive feedbacks between state and behaviour can play in producing consistent among-individual covariance between state and behaviour, hence state-dependent personality. We review the role of feedbacks in recent models of adaptive personalities, and provide guidelines for empirical testing of model assumptions and predictions. We discuss the importance of the mediating effects of ecology on these feedbacks, and provide a roadmap for including state–behaviour feedbacks in behavioural ecology research
Correlational selection on personality and social plasticity: morphology and social context determine behavioural effects on mating success
Phenotypic integration in an extended phenotype: among‐individual variation in nest‐building traits of the alfalfa leafcutting bee ( Megachile rotundata
Individual and environmental determinants of Cuterebra bot fly parasitism in the eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus)
Respective contributions of diet and medium to the bioaccumulation of pharmaceutical compounds in the first levels of an aquatic trophic web
Temnothorax rugatulus ant colonies consistently vary in nest structure across time and context
A host of animals build architectural constructions. Such constructions frequently vary with environmental and individual/colony conditions, and their architecture directly influences behavior and fitness. The nests of ant colonies drive and enable many of their collective behaviors, and as such are part of their 'extended phenotype'. Since ant colonies have been recently shown to differ in behavior and life history strategy, we ask whether colonies differ in another trait: the architecture of the constructions they create. We allowed Temnothorax rugatulus rock ants, who create nests by building walls within narrow rock gaps, to repeatedly build nest walls in a fixed crevice but under two environmental conditions. We find that colonies consistently differ in their architecture across environments and over nest building events. Colony identity explained 12-40% of the variation in nest architecture, while colony properties and environmental conditions explained 5-20%, as indicated by the condition and marginal R2 values. When their nest boxes were covered, which produced higher humidity and lower airflow, colonies built thicker, longer, and heavier walls. Colonies also built more robust walls when they had more brood, suggesting a protective function of wall thickness. This is, to our knowledge, the first study to explicitly investigate the repeatability of nestbuilding behavior in a controlled environment. Our results suggest that colonies may face tradeoffs, perhaps between factors such as active vs. passive nest defense, and that selection may act on individual construction rules as a mechanisms to mediate colony-level behavior