Singing activity reveals personality traits in great tits

TY - JOUR

T1 - Singing activity reveals personality traits in great tits

AU - Naguib, M.

AU - Kazek, A.M.

AU - Schaper, S.V.

AU - Van Oers, K.

AU - Visser, M.E.

N1 - Reporting year: 2010 Metis note: 4790;CTE; AnE; file:///L:\EndnoteDatabases\NIOOPUB\pdfs\PDFS2010\Naguib_ea_4790.pdf

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - In animal communication, sexually selected signals have been shown to often signal individual attributes such as motivation or quality. Birdsong is among the best studied signalling systems, and song traits vary substantially among individuals. The question remains if variation in signalling also reflects more general and consistent individual characteristics. Such consistent individual differences in behaviour that are relatively stable over time and contexts are referred to as personality or behavioural syndromes. Here, we studied the relation between singing and explorative behaviour, a well-studied personality trait, using great tits (Parus major) under standardized aviary conditions. The results show that singing activity measured as the number of songs sung in spring prior to breeding correlated with male but not with female explorative behaviour. In contrast, song repertoire was not related to explorative behaviour but varied over the day. The link between explorative and singing behaviour suggests that sexually selected signals are more than signals of quality but can also reflect other intrinsic behavioural characteristics such as personality traits.

AB - In animal communication, sexually selected signals have been shown to often signal individual attributes such as motivation or quality. Birdsong is among the best studied signalling systems, and song traits vary substantially among individuals. The question remains if variation in signalling also reflects more general and consistent individual characteristics. Such consistent individual differences in behaviour that are relatively stable over time and contexts are referred to as personality or behavioural syndromes. Here, we studied the relation between singing and explorative behaviour, a well-studied personality trait, using great tits (Parus major) under standardized aviary conditions. The results show that singing activity measured as the number of songs sung in spring prior to breeding correlated with male but not with female explorative behaviour. In contrast, song repertoire was not related to explorative behaviour but varied over the day. The link between explorative and singing behaviour suggests that sexually selected signals are more than signals of quality but can also reflect other intrinsic behavioural characteristics such as personality traits.

U2 - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2010.01791.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2010.01791.x

M3 - Article

SN - 0179-1613

VL - 116

SP - 763

EP - 769

JO - Ethology

JF - Ethology

IS - 8

ER -