Affiliation:
1. Juhász-Nagy Pál Doctoral School, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hajdú-Bihar, Hungary
2. MTA-DE Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hajdú-Bihar, Hungary
Abstract
Background
Individuals’ access to resources is often decided during dyadic contests the outcome of which is determined by the fighting (or competitive) ability of the participants. Individuals’ fighting ability (termed also as resource-holding power or potential, RHP) is usually associated with individual features (e.g., sex, age, body size) and is also frequently signalled through various ornaments like the black throat patch (bib) in many birds. Individual personality is a behavioural attribute often linked to fighting ability as well. Based on earlier studies, however, the relationship between personality and fighting ability is far from being straightforward. While accounting for sex and body size, we studied whether exploratory behaviour, an aspect of personality, predicts fighting ability when competing for food during winter in free-living Eurasian tree sparrows (Passer montanus). We also investigated whether the bib can serve as a potential indicator of individual competitiveness in this species.
Methods
We captured adult tree sparrows, marked them with a unique combination of colour rings, and collected data about the individuals’ sex, body size, bib size and exploratory behaviour. Birds were then released and the agonistic behaviour of the marked individuals was recorded while foraging in groups on bird feeding platforms.
Results
The probability of winning a fight, a proxy for fighting ability of individuals, was not related to exploratory behaviour, in either of the sexes. However, bib size was positively related to probability of winning in females, but not in males. Body size was not associated with probability of winning neither in males, nor in females.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that, at least in tree sparrows, the outcome of dyadic encounters over food during the non-breeding period are not determined by the exploratory personality of individuals. However, our findings provide further support for a status signalling role of the black bib in tree sparrows, and hint for the first time that bib size might function as a status signal in females as well. Finally, our results do not confirm that body size could serve as an indicator of fighting ability (i.e., RHP) in this species.
Funder
The National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary
The Magyar Vidékért (Pro Regione) Foundation
The Eötvös Scholarship of the Hungarian State
The János Bolyai Research Scholarship
The ÚNKP-21-5 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund
The European Union and the European Social Fund
The Thematic Excellence Programme of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology in Hungary
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Medicine,General Neuroscience
Cited by
1 articles.
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