Dataset Information

Interactions between cleaner-birds and ungulates are personality dependent.

ABSTRACT: While a growing body of literature explores the ecological implications of consistent individual variation in the behaviour of wildlife, few studies have looked at the reciprocal influences of personality within interspecific interactions, despite the potentially significant impacts on biodiversity. Here I used two species involved in cleaner-bird behaviour-black-billed magpies (Pica pica) and Rocky mountain elk (Cervus canadensis)-to show that the exhibition of mutualistic behaviour can depend on the personality of the individual involved. I recorded suites of correlated behaviours in both elk and magpies to derive personality gradients from 'shy' to 'bold', which I compared with observations of interspecific interactions. I measured each half of this mutualistic relationship separately. I found that bold elk were more likely to aggressively reject magpie landings, while shy elk allowed magpies to land and groom them. Contrastingly, I found it was bold magpies that were willing to risk landings, while shy magpies rarely attempted landings. These results show that the exhibition of interspecific behaviour is predicated on the personality of the individuals, and thus likely contributes to the selection and maintenance of personality variation within populations.

SUBMITTER: Found R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5719382 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Interactions between cleaner-birds and ungulates are personality dependent.

Found Rob R

Biology letters 20171101 11

While a growing body of literature explores the ecological implications of consistent individual variation in the behaviour of wildlife, few studies have looked at the reciprocal influences of personality within interspecific interactions, despite the potentially significant impacts on biodiversity. Here I used two species involved in cleaner-bird behaviour-black-billed magpies (<i>Pica pica</i>) and Rocky mountain elk (<i>Cervus canadensis</i>)-to show that the exhibition of mutualistic behavio ...[more]

PMID: 29187607

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Project description:BACKGROUND AND AIMS:To determine whether transdiagnostic risk, represented as elevations in one high-risk personality trait, interacts with behavior-specific risk, represented as elevated expectancies for reinforcement from either drinking or smoking, to account partly for early adolescent drinking and smoking behavior. DESIGN:Multiple regression analysis. SETTING:Twenty-three public schools in two school systems in the United States. PARTICIPANTS:A sample of 1897 adolescents tested in the spring of 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grades. MEASUREMENTS:Transdiagnostic risk was measured as negative urgency, the tendency to act rashly when distressed, using the UPPS-P child version. Drinking-specific and smoking-specific risk were measured as expectancies for reinforcement from drinking and smoking, using the Memory Model-Based Expectancy Questionnaire (alcohol) and the Adolescent Smoking Consequences Questionnaire (smoking). FINDINGS:There was consistent concurrent prediction from the interactions of (a) negative urgency and alcohol reinforcement expectancies to early adolescent drinking and (b) negative urgency and smoking reinforcement expectancies to early adolescent smoking, above and beyond prediction from the main effects of those variables. In each case, expectancies were more predictive at higher levels of negative urgency. Incremental R2 values for main effects ranged from 0.07 to 0.26, and for interactions ranged from 0.01 to 0.03. Prospectively, the main effects predicted subsequent behavior but the interaction effects did not, except in one case. CONCLUSIONS:Among elementary and high school students in the United States, the joint effects of negative urgency and behavior-specific expectancies help to explain drinking and smoking behavior. Joint elevations on the trait and the learning variable account for drinking and smoking behavior beyond the main effects of each predictor. However, there is reason to doubt whether the joint effects predict subsequent increases in drinking and smoking beyond the main effects of those variables.

Project description:Abstract:Cognition is fundamental to animals' lives and an important source of phenotypic variation. Nevertheless, research on individual variation in animal cognition is still limited. Further, although individual cognitive abilities have been suggested to be linked to personality (i.e., consistent behavioral differences among individuals), few studies have linked performance across multiple cognitive tasks to personality traits. Thus, the interplays between cognition and personality are still unclear. We therefore investigated the relationships between an important aspect of cognition, learning, and personality, by exposing young and adult red junglefowl (Gallus gallus) to multiple learning tasks (discriminative, reversal, and spatial learning) and personality assays (novel arena, novel object, and tonic immobility). Learning speed was not correlated across learning tasks, and learning speed in discrimination and spatial learning tasks did not co-vary with personality. However, learning speed in reversal tasks was associated with individual variation in exploration, and in an age-dependent manner. More explorative chicks learned the reversal task faster than less explorative ones, while the opposite association was found for adult females (learning speed could not be assayed in adult males). In the same reversal tasks, we also observed a sex difference in learning speed of chicks, with females learning faster than males. Our results suggest that the relationship between cognition and personality is complex, as shown by its task- and age-dependence, and encourage further investigation of the causality and dynamics of this relationship. Significance statement:In the ancestor of today's chickens, the red junglefowl, we explored how personality and cognition relate by exposing both chicks and adults to several learning tasks and personality assays. Our birds differed in personality and learning speed, while fast learners in one task did not necessarily learn fast in another (i.e., there were no overall "smarter" birds). Exploration correlated with learning speed in the more complex task of reversal learning: faster exploring chicks, but slower exploring adult females, learned faster, compared to less explorative birds. Other aspects of cognition and personality did not correlate. Our results suggest that cognition and personality are related, and that the relationship can differ depending on task and age of the animal.

Dataset Information

Interactions between cleaner-birds and ungulates are personality dependent.

Publications

Interactions between cleaner-birds and ungulates are personality dependent.

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