Nestling activity levels during begging behaviour predicts activity level and body mass in adulthood
Across a range of species including humans, personality traits, or differences in behaviour between individuals that are consistent over time, have been demonstrated. However, few studies have measured whether these consistent differences are evident in very young animals, and whether they persist o...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PeerJ Inc.
2014-09-01
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| Series: | PeerJ |
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| Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/566.pdf |
| _version_ | 1827612258404925440 |
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| author | Luke S.C. McCowan Simon C. Griffith |
| author_facet | Luke S.C. McCowan Simon C. Griffith |
| author_sort | Luke S.C. McCowan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Across a range of species including humans, personality traits, or differences in behaviour between individuals that are consistent over time, have been demonstrated. However, few studies have measured whether these consistent differences are evident in very young animals, and whether they persist over an individual’s entire lifespan. Here we investigated the begging behaviour of very young cross-fostered zebra finch nestlings and the relationship between that and adult activity levels. We found a link between the nestling activity behaviour head movements during begging, measured at just five and seven days after hatching, and adult activity levels, measured when individuals were between three and three and a half years old. Moreover, body mass was found to be negatively correlated with both nestling and adult activity levels, suggesting that individuals which carry less body fat as adults are less active both as adults and during begging as nestlings. Our work suggests that the personality traits identified here in both very young nestlings and adults may be linked to physiological factors such as metabolism or environmental sources of variation. Moreover, our work suggests it may be possible to predict an individual’s future adult personality at a very young age, opening up new avenues for future work to explore the relationship between personality and a number of aspects of individual life history and survival. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T08:18:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a67c5414ffe64b858acd8b33e738809f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T08:18:47Z |
| publishDate | 2014-09-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PeerJ |
| spelling | doaj.art-a67c5414ffe64b858acd8b33e738809f2023-12-02T21:54:24ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592014-09-012e56610.7717/peerj.566566Nestling activity levels during begging behaviour predicts activity level and body mass in adulthoodLuke S.C. McCowan0Simon C. Griffith1Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaDepartment of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaAcross a range of species including humans, personality traits, or differences in behaviour between individuals that are consistent over time, have been demonstrated. However, few studies have measured whether these consistent differences are evident in very young animals, and whether they persist over an individual’s entire lifespan. Here we investigated the begging behaviour of very young cross-fostered zebra finch nestlings and the relationship between that and adult activity levels. We found a link between the nestling activity behaviour head movements during begging, measured at just five and seven days after hatching, and adult activity levels, measured when individuals were between three and three and a half years old. Moreover, body mass was found to be negatively correlated with both nestling and adult activity levels, suggesting that individuals which carry less body fat as adults are less active both as adults and during begging as nestlings. Our work suggests that the personality traits identified here in both very young nestlings and adults may be linked to physiological factors such as metabolism or environmental sources of variation. Moreover, our work suggests it may be possible to predict an individual’s future adult personality at a very young age, opening up new avenues for future work to explore the relationship between personality and a number of aspects of individual life history and survival.https://peerj.com/articles/566.pdfBeggingActivityPersonalityOntogenyBehavioural consistencyZebra finch |
| spellingShingle | Luke S.C. McCowan Simon C. Griffith Nestling activity levels during begging behaviour predicts activity level and body mass in adulthood PeerJ Begging Activity Personality Ontogeny Behavioural consistency Zebra finch |
| title | Nestling activity levels during begging behaviour predicts activity level and body mass in adulthood |
| title_full | Nestling activity levels during begging behaviour predicts activity level and body mass in adulthood |
| title_fullStr | Nestling activity levels during begging behaviour predicts activity level and body mass in adulthood |
| title_full_unstemmed | Nestling activity levels during begging behaviour predicts activity level and body mass in adulthood |
| title_short | Nestling activity levels during begging behaviour predicts activity level and body mass in adulthood |
| title_sort | nestling activity levels during begging behaviour predicts activity level and body mass in adulthood |
| topic | Begging Activity Personality Ontogeny Behavioural consistency Zebra finch |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/566.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lukescmccowan nestlingactivitylevelsduringbeggingbehaviourpredictsactivitylevelandbodymassinadulthood AT simoncgriffith nestlingactivitylevelsduringbeggingbehaviourpredictsactivitylevelandbodymassinadulthood |