Abstract
Many animals do not associate at random. Individuals
can selectively choose who to avoid or who to
approach, but can also have different tendencies to
socialize in at all. Personality, the consistent difference
in behaviour between individuals, can make this social
behaviour of individuals predictable and it can allow
others to respond with selective avoidance or
association. Until now researchers were unable to
simultaneously approximate the personality of
individuals and quantify their pair-wise associations in
the wild. We overcame this by using the new tracking
technology, Encounternet, in a natural population of
personality-typed great tits.
In March 2012 and 2013 we equipped a large number
of personality-typed wild great tits with Encounternet
tags sending signals every 5 seconds. These signals
could be received by a large number of wireless
stations distributed throughout the field site. By
triangulating locations we were able to extract, out of
several thousands of simultaneous observations,
hundreds of close range encounters.
Here we will present the results which provide
interesting insights into the role of personality in a
social network.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of Behaviour 2013, International Ethological Conference Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, Newcastle, United Kingdom, 4 - 8 August, 2013 |
| Place of Publication | Newcastle, United Kingdom |
| Publisher | Behaviour 2013 |
| Pages | 27 |
| Publication status | Published - 2013 |
| Event | 33rd International Ethological Conference Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (Behaviour 2013) - Duration: 4 Aug 2013 → 8 Aug 2013 |
Conference/symposium
| Conference/symposium | 33rd International Ethological Conference Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (Behaviour 2013) |
|---|---|
| Period | 4/08/13 → 8/08/13 |