Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Space-use and sociability are not related to public-information use in ninespine sticklebacks

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There has been much recent interest in both public information use, and the evolutionary origins and ecological consequences of animal personalities but surprisingly little integration of these two fields. Personality traits may impact upon the extent to which individuals respond to public information in a number of different ways. As a first step towards addressing some of these questions, in this study, we asked whether personality traits predicted public information use in ninespine sticklebacks (Pungitius pungitius). Over a 33-day period, subjects were scored twice for a number of behavioural traits, including measures of activity, exploration and shoaling tendency, and were exposed multiple times to a public information use foraging task, in which they were required to select the richer of two prey patches based upon the foraging success of two demonstrator groups. The repeatable (r = 0.38–0.58) behavioural traits were reduced to two principle components describing space use and sociability. Neither of these was found to be related to either of two measures of public information use. While the personality traits that we considered did not co-vary with public information use in this species, they may well indirectly affect opportunity for exposure to public information, and this is an obvious avenue for further research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aplin LM, Farine DR, Morand‐Ferron J, Cole EF, Cockburn A, Sheldon BC (2013) Individual personalities predict social behaviour in wild networks of great tits (Parus major). Ecol Lett 16:1365–1372

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Atton N, Hoppitt W, Webster MM, Galef BG, Laland KN (2012) Information flow through threespine stickleback networks without social transmission. Proc R Soc B 279:4272–4278

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Atton N, Galef BJ, Hoppitt W, Webster MM, Laland KN (2014) Familiarity affects social network structure and discovery of prey patch locations in foraging stickleback shoals. Proc R Soc B 281:20140579

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Avital E, Jablonka E (2000) Animal traditions: behavioural inheritance in evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bell AM, Hankison SJ, Laskowski KL (2009) The repeatability of behaviour: a meta-analysis. Anim Behav 77:771–783

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Conrad JL, Weinersmith KL, Brodin T, Saltz JB, Sih A (2011) Behavioural syndromes in fishes: a review with implications for ecology and fisheries management. J Fish Biol 78:395–435

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Croft DP, James R, Krause J (2008) Exploring animal social networks. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dall SR, Giraldeau LA, Olsson O, McNamara JM, Stephens DW (2005) Information and its use by animals in evolutionary ecology. Trends Ecol Evol 20:187–193

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Danchin E, Giraldeau LA, Valone TJ, Wagner RH (2004) Public information: from nosy neighbors to cultural evolution. Science 305:487–491

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • David M, Cézilly F, Giraldeau LA (2011) Personality affects zebra finch feeding success in a producer–scrounger game. Anim Behav 82:61–67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franz M, Nunn CL (2009) Network-based diffusion analysis: a new method for detecting social learning. Proc R Soc B 276:1829–1836

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Galef BG, Giraldeau LA (2001) Social influences on foraging in vertebrates: causal mechanisms and adaptive functions. Anim Behav 61:3–15

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gosling SD, John OP (1999) Personality dimensions in nonhuman animals a cross-species review. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 8:69–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths SW, Ward A (2011) Learned recognition of conspecifics. In: Brown C, Laland K, Krause J (eds) Fish cognition and behavior. Wiley Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Harcourt JL, Biau S, Johnstone R, Manica A (2010) Boldness and information use in three‐spined sticklebacks. Ethology 116:440–447

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herczeg G, Gonda A, Merilä J (2009) Predation mediated population divergence in complex behaviour of nine‐spined stickleback (Pungitiuspungitius). J Evol Biol 22:544–552

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heyes CM (1994) Social learning in animals: categories and mechanisms. Biol Rev 69:207–231

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heyes CM, Galef BG (1996) Social learning in animals: the roots of culture. Academic Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoppitt W, Laland KN (2008) Social processes influencing learning in animals: a review of the evidence. Adv Study Behav 38:105–165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoppitt W, Laland KN (2013) Social learning: an introduction to mechanisms, methods, and models. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hoppitt W, Boogert NJ, Laland KN (2010) Detecting social transmission in networks. J Theor Biol 263:544–555

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jolles JW, Ostojić L, Clayton NS (2013) Dominance, pair bonds and boldness determine social-foraging tactics in rooks, Corvusfrugilegus. Anim Behav 85:1261–1269

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kurvers RH, Adamczyk VM, van Wieren SE, Prins HH (2010a) The effect of boldness on decision-making in barnacle geese is group-size-dependent. Proc R Soc B 277:601–608

  • Kurvers RH, Van Oers K, Nolet BA, Jonker RM, Van Wieren SE, Prins HH, Ydenberg RC (2010b) Personality predicts the use of social information. Ecol Lett 13:829–837

  • Laland KN (2004) Social learning strategies. Learn Behav 32:4–14

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Laland KN, Atton N, Webster MM (2011) From fish to fashion: experimental and theoretical insights into the evolution of culture. Philos Trans R Soc B 366:958–968

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Leadbeater E, Chittka L (2007) Social learning in insects—from miniature brains to consensus building. Curr Biol 17:703–713

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marchetti C, Drent PJ (2000) Individual differences in the use of social information in foraging by captive great tits. Anim Behav 60:131–140

  • Merilä J (2013) Nine‐spined stickleback (Pungitiuspungitius): an emerging model for evolutionary biology research. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1289:18–35

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nomakuchi S, Park PJ, Bell MA (2009) Correlation between exploration activity and use of social information in three-spined sticklebacks. Behav Ecol 20:340–345

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Réale D, Reader SM, Sol D, McDougall PT, Dingemanse NJ (2007) Integrating animal temperament within ecology and evolution. Biol Rev 82:291–318

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rendell L, Boyd R, Cownden D, Enquist M, Eriksson K, Feldman MW, Fogarty L, Ghirlanda S, Lillicrap T, Laland KN (2010) Why copy others? Insights from the social learning strategies tournament. Science 328:208–213

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rendell L, Fogarty L, Hoppitt WJ, Morgan TJ, Webster MM, Laland KN (2011) Cognitive culture: theoretical and empirical insights into social learning strategies. Trends Cogn Sci 15:68–76

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rieucau G, Giraldeau LA (2011) Exploring the costs and benefits of social information use: an appraisal of current experimental evidence. Philos Trans R Soc B 366:949–957

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sih A, Bell AM (2008) Insights for behavioral ecology from behavioral syndromes. Adv Study Behav 38:227–281

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sih A, Bell A, Johnson JC (2004a) Behavioral syndromes: an ecological and evolutionary overview. Trends Ecol Evol 19:372–378

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sih A, Bell AM, Johnson JC, Ziemba R (2004b) Behavioral syndromes: an integrative overview. Q Rev Biol 79:241–277

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Valone TJ (2007) From eavesdropping on performance to copying the behavior of others: a review of public information use. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62:1–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valone TJ, Templeton JJ (2002) Public information for the assessment of quality: a widespread social phenomenon. Philos Trans R Soc B 357:1549–1557

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward AJW, Hart PJB (2003) The effects of kin and familiarity on interactions between fish. Fish Fish 4:348–358

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward AJW, Thomas P, Hart PJB, Krause J (2004) Correlates of boldness in three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 5:561–568

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webster MM, Laland KN (2011) Reproductive state affects reliance on public information in sticklebacks. Proc R Soc B 278:619–627

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Webster MM, Laland KN (2012) Social information, conformity and the opportunity costs paid by foraging fish. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 66:797–809

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webster MM, Laland KN (2013) The learning mechanism underlying public information use in ninespine sticklebacks (Pungitius pungitius). J Comp Psychol 127:154–165

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Webster MM, Ward AJW (2011) Personality and social context. Biol Rev 86:759–773

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Webster MM, Atton N, Ward AJW, Hart PJB (2007a) Turbidity and foraging rate in threespine sticklebacks: the importance of visual and chemical prey cues. Behaviour 144:1347–1360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webster MM, Goldsmith J, Ward AJW, Hart PJB (2007b) Habitat-specific chemical cues influence association preferences and shoal cohesion in fish. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62:273–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webster MM, Ward AJW, Hart PJB (2007c) Boldness is influenced by social context in threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Behaviour 144:351–371

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webster MM, Ward AJW, Hart PJB (2009) Individual boldness affects interspecific interactions in sticklebacks. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 63:511–520

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webster MM, Atton N, Hoppitt WJ, Laland KN (2013) Environmental complexity influences association network structure and network-based diffusion of foraging information in fish shoals. Am Nat 181:235–244

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson DS (1998) Adaptive individual differences within single populations. Philos Trans R Soc B 353:199–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson DS, Clark AB, Coleman K, Dearstyne T (1994) Shyness and boldness in humans and other animals. Trends Ecol Evol 9:442–446

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson ADM, Croft DP, Krause J (2013) Social networks in elasmobranchs and teleost fishes. Fish Fish 15:676–689

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by a European Research Council advanced grant (EVOCULTURE 232823) to KNL.

Ethical standards

The experiments described in the article were performed in accordance with the current laws of the UK.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biology, University of St Andrews, Harold Mitchell Building, Fife, KY16 9TS, UK

    M. M. Webster & K. N. Laland

Authors
  1. M. M. Webster
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. K. N. Laland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. M. Webster.

Additional information

Communicated by J. Lindström

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Webster, M.M., Laland, K.N. Space-use and sociability are not related to public-information use in ninespine sticklebacks. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 69, 895–907 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-1901-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-1901-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation