No, you go first: phenotype and social context affect house sparrow neophobia
- 1. Louisiana State University
Description
Novel object trials are commonly used to assess aversion to novelty (neophobia), and previous work has shown neophobia can be influenced by the social environment, but whether the altered behaviour persists afterwards (social learning) is largely unknown in wild animals. We assessed house sparrow (Passer domesticus) novel object responses before, during, and after being paired with a conspecific of either similar or different behavioral phenotype. During paired trials, animals housed with a similar or more neophobic partner demonstrated an increased aversion to novel objects. This change did not persist a week after unpairing, but neophobia decreased after unpairing in birds previously housed with a less neophobic partner. We also compared novel object responses to non-object control trials to validate our experimental procedure. Our results provide evidence of social learning in a highly successful invasive species, and an interesting asymmetry in the effects of social environment on neophobia behavior depending on the animal's initial behavioral phenotype.
Notes
Datapoint Losses:
Control Pairs: One individual escaped during object exposure during week 3 paired trials. We removed these datapoints for both birds (control pairing; week 3 object trials n = 28). Week 5 (unpaired) novel object videos were lost (three trials) for one control bird (control pairing; week 5 object trials n = 27, week 5 control trials n = 18).
Mixed Pairs: Due to a camera failure, one trial was lost during week 3 (paired trials; n = 20).
Guide to datafiles:
Files are split by pairing type and by control or object trials.
Pairing Effects:
Control Trials (no object presented)
R Code: "R Code week comparisons by pairing_control trials only.R"
Data: [control pair] "Approach times_controls all weeks_control trials only.csv"
[more neo] "Approach times_more neophobic all weeks_control trials only.csv"
[less neo] "Approach times_less neophobic all weeks_control trials only.csv"
Object Trials
R Code: "R Code week comparisons by pairing_no control trials.R"
Data: [control pair] "Approach times_controls all weeks_no control trials.csv"
[more neo] "Approach times_more neophobic all weeks_no control trials.csv"
[less neo] "Approach times_less neophobic all weeks_no control trials.csv"
Object Effects (seventh model):
R Code: "R Code all weeks all phenotypes for object effects.R"
Data: "Approach times_all phenotypes all weeks.csv"
Hazard Ratio 95% CI calculations:
"Calculating Hazard Ratio 95CIs.xls"
Funding provided by: Louisiana State University
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100008294
Award Number: Start-up funding awarded to CRL.
Files
Approach_times_all_phenotypes_all_weeks.csv
Files
(30.8 kB)
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