Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0406, United States.
Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0406, United States.
Horm Behav. 2018 Jun;102:105-113. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2018.05.005. Epub 2018 May 22.
Animal personality has been linked to individual variation in both stress physiology and social behaviors, but few studies have simultaneously examined covariation between personality traits, stress hormone levels, and behaviors in free-living animals. We investigated relationships between exploratory behavior (one aspect of animal personality), stress physiology, and social and foraging behaviors in wild house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus). We conducted novel environment assays after collecting samples of baseline and stress-induced plasma corticosterone concentrations from a subset of house finches. We then fitted individuals with Passive Integrated Transponder tags and monitored feeder use and social interactions at radio-frequency identification equipped bird feeders. First, we found that individuals with higher baseline corticosterone concentrations exhibit more exploratory behaviors in a novel environment. Second, more exploratory individuals interacted with more unique conspecifics in the wild, though this result was stronger for female than for male house finches. Third, individuals that were quick to begin exploring interacted more frequently with conspecifics than slow-exploring individuals. Finally, exploratory behaviors were unrelated to foraging behaviors, including the amount of time spent on bird feeders, a behavior previously shown to be predictive of acquiring a bacterial disease that causes annual epidemics in house finches. Overall, our results indicate that individual differences in exploratory behavior are linked to variation in both stress physiology and social network traits in free-living house finches. Such covariation has important implications for house finch ecology, as both traits can contribute to fitness in the wild.
动物个性与应激生理和社会行为的个体差异有关，但很少有研究同时检查自由生活动物的个性特征、应激激素水平和行为之间的协变关系。我们研究了野生家雀（Haemorhous mexicanus）的探索行为（动物个性的一个方面）、应激生理学以及社会和觅食行为之间的关系。在从一组家雀中收集基础和应激诱导的血浆皮质酮浓度样本后，我们进行了新环境测定。然后，我们为个体配备了无源集成转发器标签，并在配备射频识别的鸟饲料器上监测饲料使用和社交互动。首先，我们发现基础皮质酮浓度较高的个体在新环境中表现出更多的探索行为。其次，更多探索性的个体在野外与更多独特的同类互动，尽管这一结果对雌性家雀比对雄性家雀更强。第三，与缓慢探索的个体相比，快速开始探索的个体与同类互动更频繁。最后，探索行为与觅食行为无关，包括在鸟饲料器上花费的时间，该行为先前被证明与一种导致家雀每年爆发的细菌性疾病的传播有关。总的来说，我们的结果表明，自由生活的家雀中探索行为的个体差异与应激生理和社会网络特征的变化有关。这种协变对家雀生态学具有重要意义，因为这两个特征都可以有助于在野外的适应性。
