Martins Catarina I M, Schaedelin Franziska C, Mann Marlene, Blum Christian, Mandl Isabella, Urban Damaris, Grill Johannes, Schößwender Julia, Wagner Richard H
Centro de Ciências do Mar (CCMAR), Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal.
Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria.
Behaviour. 2012;149(2):215-231. doi: 10.1163/156853912X634430.
Individual differences in exploratory behaviour have been shown to be consistent across contexts and suggested to be part of behavioural syndromes in a diversity of species, including fish. Exploration has also been shown to be a key factor in understanding complex ecological processes such as sexual selection and cooperation. Another important question in ecology is why animals breed in colonies. Exploration syndromes, by affecting prospecting behaviour, dispersal and public information use may also contribute to our understanding of coloniality. This study aims at investigating whether an exploration syndrome exists in a colonial fish species, . Individuals of this species were subjected to two consecutive tests, a novel environment and a novel object test. Results show that more explorative individuals in a novel environment are also less neophobic in the presence of a novel object, suggesting that the tendency to engage with novelty per se is a consistent trait and part of an exploration syndrome. These results are discussed in light of the contribution of an exploration syndrome to explain colony formation in animals.
探索行为的个体差异已被证明在不同环境中具有一致性，并被认为是包括鱼类在内的多种物种行为综合征的一部分。探索也被证明是理解性选择和合作等复杂生态过程的关键因素。生态学中的另一个重要问题是动物为何会集群繁殖。探索综合征通过影响觅食行为、扩散和公共信息利用，也可能有助于我们理解集群现象。本研究旨在调查一种集群鱼类物种是否存在探索综合征。该物种的个体接受了两项连续测试，即新环境测试和新物体测试。结果表明，在新环境中更具探索性的个体在面对新物体时也更少表现出对新事物的恐惧，这表明与新奇事物接触的倾向本身是一种一致的特征，并且是探索综合征的一部分。我们根据探索综合征对解释动物集群形成的贡献来讨论这些结果。
