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Invasive Cane Toads: Social Facilitation Depends upon an Individual’s Personality
Individual variation in behavioural traits (including responses to social cues) may influence the success of invasive populations. We studied the relationship between sociality and personality in invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina) from a recently established population in tropical Australia. In o...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4102590/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25033047 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102880 |
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author | González-Bernal, Edna Brown, Gregory P. Shine, Richard |
author_facet | González-Bernal, Edna Brown, Gregory P. Shine, Richard |
author_sort | González-Bernal, Edna |
collection | PubMed |
description | Individual variation in behavioural traits (including responses to social cues) may influence the success of invasive populations. We studied the relationship between sociality and personality in invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina) from a recently established population in tropical Australia. In our field experiments, we manipulated social cues (the presence of a feeding conspecific) near a food source. We captured and compared toads that only approached feeding sites where another toad was already present, with conspecifics that approached unoccupied feeding sites. Subsequent laboratory trials showed correlated personality differences (behavioural syndromes) between these two groups of toads. For example, toads that approached already-occupied rather than unoccupied feeding sites in the field, took longer to emerge from a shelter-site in standardized trials, suggesting these individuals are ‘shy’ (whereas toads that approached unoccupied feeding stations tended to be ‘bold’). Manipulating hunger levels did not abolish this difference. In feeding trials, a bold toad typically outcompeted a shy toad under conditions of low prey availability, but the outcome was reversed when multiple prey items were present. Thus, both personality types may be favored under different circumstances. This invasive population of toads contains individuals that exhibit a range of personalities, hinting at the existence of a wide range of social dynamics in taxa traditionally considered to be asocial. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4102590 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-41025902014-07-21 Invasive Cane Toads: Social Facilitation Depends upon an Individual’s Personality González-Bernal, Edna Brown, Gregory P. Shine, Richard PLoS One Research Article Individual variation in behavioural traits (including responses to social cues) may influence the success of invasive populations. We studied the relationship between sociality and personality in invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina) from a recently established population in tropical Australia. In our field experiments, we manipulated social cues (the presence of a feeding conspecific) near a food source. We captured and compared toads that only approached feeding sites where another toad was already present, with conspecifics that approached unoccupied feeding sites. Subsequent laboratory trials showed correlated personality differences (behavioural syndromes) between these two groups of toads. For example, toads that approached already-occupied rather than unoccupied feeding sites in the field, took longer to emerge from a shelter-site in standardized trials, suggesting these individuals are ‘shy’ (whereas toads that approached unoccupied feeding stations tended to be ‘bold’). Manipulating hunger levels did not abolish this difference. In feeding trials, a bold toad typically outcompeted a shy toad under conditions of low prey availability, but the outcome was reversed when multiple prey items were present. Thus, both personality types may be favored under different circumstances. This invasive population of toads contains individuals that exhibit a range of personalities, hinting at the existence of a wide range of social dynamics in taxa traditionally considered to be asocial. Public Library of Science 2014-07-17 /pmc/articles/PMC4102590/ /pubmed/25033047 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102880 Text en © 2014 González-Bernal et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article González-Bernal, Edna Brown, Gregory P. Shine, Richard Invasive Cane Toads: Social Facilitation Depends upon an Individual’s Personality |
title | Invasive Cane Toads: Social Facilitation Depends upon an Individual’s Personality |
title_full | Invasive Cane Toads: Social Facilitation Depends upon an Individual’s Personality |
title_fullStr | Invasive Cane Toads: Social Facilitation Depends upon an Individual’s Personality |
title_full_unstemmed | Invasive Cane Toads: Social Facilitation Depends upon an Individual’s Personality |
title_short | Invasive Cane Toads: Social Facilitation Depends upon an Individual’s Personality |
title_sort | invasive cane toads: social facilitation depends upon an individual’s personality |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4102590/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25033047 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102880 |
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