Division of Behavioural Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Wohlenstrasse 50a, 3032, Hinterkappelen, Switzerland.
Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Graz, Austria.
Sci Rep. 2023 Mar 1;13(1):3435. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-30546-7.
Animal personality traits are sometimes linked to an individual's degree of plasticity, with certain personality types being more plastic than others. In territorial species, consistently high levels of aggression might increase the risk of harmful fights, while consistently low aggression might lead to the loss of a territory. Consequently, reacting plastically with an appropriate territorial response should be beneficial to avoid these risks. An integrative investigation of both personality traits and plasticity can help us better understand the dynamics of aggressive interactions during male-male competition. Here, we used a free-ranging Neotropical poison frog population to investigate the role of plasticity in male territorial aggression towards intruders. We conducted repeated standardized territorial intrusion experiments mimicking frogs of different body sizes via playback calls with different peak frequencies. We found individual repeatability for the latency to reach and approach a simulated intruder and observed that both aggressive and less aggressive males decreased their level of aggression towards big intruders. However, our results do not support a correlation between personality and plasticity in the context of male territory defense during the breeding season. We discuss how such a correlation between personality and plasticity might be conditional on the costs and benefits across contexts.
动物的个性特征有时与个体的可塑性程度有关，某些个性类型比其他类型更具可塑性。在有领地的物种中，持续高水平的攻击性可能会增加有害战斗的风险，而持续低水平的攻击性可能会导致领地丧失。因此，通过适当的领地反应进行灵活反应应该有助于避免这些风险。对个性特征和可塑性的综合研究可以帮助我们更好地理解雄性间竞争期间攻击性相互作用的动态。在这里，我们使用了一个自由生活的新热带毒蛙种群来研究可塑性在雄性对入侵者的领地攻击性中的作用。我们通过具有不同峰值频率的播放呼叫来模拟不同体型的青蛙，进行了重复的标准化领地入侵实验。我们发现个体对到达和接近模拟入侵者的潜伏期具有可重复性，并且观察到攻击性和不那么攻击性的雄性对大型入侵者的攻击性都降低了。然而，我们的结果并不支持在繁殖季节雄性领地防御中个性和可塑性之间存在相关性。我们讨论了个性和可塑性之间的这种相关性如何在不同环境下取决于成本和收益。
