Facilitative effects of social partners on Java sparrow activity. (March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Juan; King, Andrew J.; Fürtbauer, Ines; Wang, Yan-Wen; He, Ya-Qi; Zhang, Zhi-Wei; Wan, Dong-Mei; Yin, Jiang-Xia
• Is Part Of: Animal behaviour. Volume 161(2020)
• Page Start: 33
• Page End: 38
• Publication Date: 2020-03
• Subjects: activity -- Lonchura oryzivora -- personality -- sex difference -- social context; Animal behavior -- Periodicals; 591.5
• DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.12.017
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0003-3472

Abstract

Abstract : Group-living animals can affect each other's behaviour, causing changes in the rate or type of behaviours performed (social facilitation), or convergence in behaviour to that displayed by the majority of neighbours (social conformity). Facilitation and conformity effects can act to reduce direct competition and/or enable social coordination, and the degree to which individuals can affect each other's behaviour can depend upon the identities and traits of those interacting. To investigate the effect of social partners on individual behaviour, we studied the activity of Java sparrows, Lonchura oryzivora, in three contexts (alone, in the presence of three males or in the presence of three females) and in two conditions (novel environment and novel object tests). A significant proportion of variation in bird activity across trials was attributed to variation among individuals, indicating a personality trait. However, activity varied systematically according to whether birds were tested alone or in the presence of companions. We found that irrespective of the focal bird's sex, individuals were more active in a social context than when alone, and this effect was greatest when focal birds were in the presence of male companions. Overall, our findings demonstrate facilitative effects of social partners on Java sparrow activity, and the magnitude of this effect depended on the sex of the companions. These results therefore support the hypothesis that social isolation causes behavioural inhibition (which may be caused by increased perception of risk), and future studies should carefully assess the need to consider the social context when studying personality and its ecological and evolutionary processes across different species and contexts. Highlights: Social facilitation occurs when an individual's behaviour increases that of others. Social facilitation depends on the identities and traits of companions. Social isolation causes behavioural inhibition. Java sparrows were more active in a social context than when alone. Social facilitation was greatest when male companions were present.