Publication
Title
Exploration behavior and parental effort in wild great tits : partners matter
Author
Abstract
The extended pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis suggests that variation in boldness-like behaviors has co-evolved with variation in life-history strategies within populations, yet both theoretically driven experiments and evidence for phenotypic correlations between boldness-like behaviors and reproduction-related activities are scarce. Here we test the prediction that more exploratory individuals should be willing to provide more effort into current reproduction than less exploratory ones by investigating the association between exploration behavior and parental effort in wild great tits (Parus major). To this end, we assessed exploration behavior following a standardized assay. Then, we estimated individual willingness to provide parental effort into brood provisioning as (1) individual increase in nest visit rate after the brood had been artificially enlarged and (2) individual latency to return to the nest after this manipulation. Fast male explorers were quicker than slow explorers to return to the nest after the manipulation. Males paired with a partner of similar exploration scoreeither a fast or slow female explorer increased their nest visit rate more than males paired with a partner of dissimilar exploration score. The relationship between exploration and parental effort then depended on ones partners behavior. Our test thus provides only partial support for the extended POLS hypothesis and highlights the potential importance of the social environment in shaping the relationship between boldness-like behaviors and fitness-maximizing traits.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Behavioral ecology and sociobiology. - Berlin, 1976, currens
Publication
Berlin : 2015
ISSN
0340-5443 [print]
1432-0762 [online]
DOI
10.1007/S00265-015-1921-1
Volume/pages
69 :7 (2015) , p. 1085-1095
ISI
000356044700003
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Song in songbirds as a model system for studying complex behaviours: an integration of ecological, physiological and neurobiological data in an evolutionary framework.
Causes and consequences of variation in complex secondary sexual song characteristics: a longitudinal and multidisciplinary approach by integrating behavioural, physiological and molecular data.
Causes and consequences of variation in complex secondary sexual song characteristics: a longitudinal and multidisciplinary approach by integrating behavioural, physiological and molecular data.
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 08.06.2015
Last edited 09.10.2023
To cite this reference