Nakayama Shinnosuke, Harcourt Jennifer L, Johnstone Rufus A, Manica Andrea
Albrecht-Daniel-Thaer-Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, 12587 Berlin, Germany
Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK.
Biol Lett. 2016 May;12(5). doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0207.
During collective movement, bolder individuals often emerge as leaders. Here, we investigate whether this reflects a greater propensity of bold individuals to initiate movement, or a preference for shy individuals to follow a bolder leader. We set up trios of stickleback fish comprising a focal individual who was either bold or shy, and one other individual of each personality. We then recorded the movements of all individuals in and out of cover in a foraging context to determine how assiduously the focal fish followed the movements of each other partner. We found that a shy focal fish preferred to follow a leader whose personality matched its own, but we did not detect such a difference in bold fish. Despite this preference, however, the greater propensity of bold individuals to initiate movements out of cover meant that they successfully led more joint trips. Thus, when offered a choice of leaders, sticklebacks prefer to follow individuals whose personality matches their own, but bolder individuals may, nevertheless, be able to impose their leadership, even among shy followers, simply through greater effort.
在集体活动中，更勇敢的个体常常会成为领导者。在此，我们探究这是反映了勇敢个体发起活动的倾向更强，还是害羞个体更倾向于追随更勇敢的领导者。我们组建了三刺鱼三人组，其中包括一个勇敢或害羞的焦点个体，以及每种性格的另一个个体。然后，我们记录了所有个体在觅食环境中进出掩体的活动，以确定焦点鱼追随每个伙伴活动的勤勉程度。我们发现，害羞的焦点鱼更喜欢追随性格与其自身匹配的领导者，但在勇敢的鱼中我们未检测到这种差异。然而，尽管有这种偏好，但勇敢个体发起离开掩体活动的倾向更强，这意味着它们成功带领了更多的联合出行。因此，当有领导者可供选择时，三刺鱼更喜欢追随性格与其自身匹配的个体，但勇敢的个体即便在害羞的追随者中，也可能仅仅通过付出更多努力就能强行确立其领导地位。
