Dall, S. R. X., Giraldeau, L. - A., Olsson, O., McNamara, J. M., & Stephens, D. W. (2005). Information and its use by animals in evolutionary ecology. Trends Ecol Evol, 20(4), 187–193.
Abstract: Information is a crucial currency for animals from both a behavioural and evolutionary perspective. Adaptive behaviour relies upon accurate estimation of relevant ecological parameters; the better informed an individual, the better it can develop and adjust its behaviour to meet the demands of a variable world. Here, we focus on the burgeoning interest in the impact of ecological uncertainty on adaptation, and the means by which it can be reduced by gathering information, from both 'passive' and 'responsive' sources. Our overview demonstrates the value of adopting an explicitly informational approach, and highlights the components that one needs to develop useful approaches to studying information use by animals. We propose a quantitative framework, based on statistical decision theory, for analysing animal information use in evolutionary ecology. Our purpose is to promote an integrative approach to studying information use by animals, which is itself integral to adaptive animal behaviour and organismal biology.
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Dall, S. R. X., Houston, A. I., & McNamara, J. M. (2004). The behavioural ecology of personality: consistent individual differences from an adaptive perspective. Ecol. Letters, 7, 734–739.
Abstract: Individual humans, and members of diverse other species, show consistent differences in
aggressiveness, shyness, sociability and activity. Such intraspecific differences in
behaviour have been widely assumed to be non-adaptive variation surrounding
(possibly) adaptive population-average behaviour. Nevertheless, in keeping with recent
calls to apply Darwinian reasoning to ever-finer scales of biological variation, we sketch
the fundamentals of an adaptive theory of consistent individual differences in behaviour.
Our thesis is based on the notion that such .personality differences. can be selected for if
fitness payoffs are dependent on both the frequencies with which competing strategies
are played and an individual`s behavioural history. To this end, we review existing models
that illustrate this and propose a game theoretic approach to analyzing personality
differences that is both dynamic and state-dependent. Our motivation is to provide
insights into the evolution and maintenance of an apparently common animal trait:
personality, which has far reaching ecological and evolutionary implications.
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de Waal, F. B. (1989). Dominance “style” and primate social organization. In V. Standen, & R. A. Foley (Eds.), Comparative Socioecology (pp. 243–263). Blackwell Science.
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Dellert, B., & Ganslosser, U. (1997). Experimental alterations of food distribution in two species of captive equids (Equus burchelli and E. hemionus kulan). Ethol Ecol Evol, 9(1), 1–17.
Abstract: n one group each of Plains zebra (six mares, one foal, one subadult) and Asiatic wild asses (seven mares, two foals) at Nuremberg Zoo, food distribution was experimentally changed from clumped (all food in one standard hay rack) to dispersed (one heap per animal). Both groups were characterized by different social structures, which basically remained during the experiment. Plains zebras had an individually structured system of social relationships in a dominance order, wild asses a more egalitarian system without clear-cut rank differences and low frequencies of agonistic interactions. Access to food accordingly was individually (but consistently) different for zebra mares, almost equal for wild ass mares. During the dispersed feeding situation frequencies of agonistic interactions in both species decreased (however non-significantly), individual distances increased but mares also frequently ''visited'' each others' heaps. Feeding time increased for all wild ass mares. Some individuals (in both groups) behaved ''against the trend'' in agonistic behaviour. The results are discussed with regard to food distribution for ungulates in general, and equid social systems.
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Dingemanse, N. J., & de Goede, P. (2004). The relation between dominance and exploratory behavior is context-dependent in wild great tits. Behav. Ecol., 15(6), 1023–1030.
Abstract: Individual differences in personality affect behavior in novel or challenging situations. Personality traits may be subject to selection because they affect the ability to dominate others. We investigated whether dominance rank at feeding tables in winter correlated with a heritable personality trait (as measured by exploratory behavior in a novel environment) in a natural population of great tits, Parus major. We provided clumped resources at feeding tables and calculated linear dominance hierarchies on the basis of observations between dyads of color-ringed individuals, and we used an experimental procedure to measure individual exploratory behavior of these birds. We show that fast-exploring territorial males had higher dominance ranks than did slow-exploring territorial males in two out of three samples, and that dominance related negatively to the distance between the site of observation and the territory. In contrast, fast-exploring nonterritorial juveniles had lower dominance ranks than did slow-exploring nonterritorial juveniles, implying that the relation between dominance and personality is context-dependent in the wild. We discuss how these patterns in dominance can explain earlier reported effects of avian personality on natal dispersal and fitness.
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Doutrelant, C., McGregor, P. K., & Oliveira, R. F. (2001). The effect of an audience on intrasexual communication in male Siamese fighting fish, Betta splendens. Behav. Ecol., 12, 283–286.
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Dugatkin, L., & Alfieri, M. (1991). Tit-For-Tat in guppies (Poecilia reticulata): the relative nature of cooperation and defection during predator inspection. Evol. Ecol., 5(3), 300–309.
Abstract: Summary The introduction of game-theoretical thinking into evolutionary biology has laid the groundwork for a heuristic view of animal behaviour in which individuals employ “strategies” – rules that instruct them how to behave in a given circumstance to maximize relative fitness. Axelrod and Hamilton (1981) found that a strategy called Tit-For-Tat (TFT) is one robust cooperative solution to the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma game. There exists, however, little empirical evidence that animals employ TFT. Predator inspection in fish provides one ecological context in which to examine the use of the TFT strategy.
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Dugatkin, L. A. (2001). Bystander effects and the structure of dominance hierarchies. Behav. Ecol., 12(3), 348–352.
Abstract: Prior modeling work has found that pure winner and loser effects (i.e., changing the estimation of your own fighting ability as a function of direct prior experience) can have important consequences for hierarchy formation. Here these models are extended to incorporate “bystander effects.” When bystander effects are in operation, observers (i.e., bystanders) of aggressive interactions change their assessment of the protagonists' fighting abilities (depending on who wins and who loses). Computer simulations demonstrate that when bystander winner effects alone are at play, groups have a clear omega (bottom-ranking individual), while the relative position of other group members remains difficult to determine. When only bystander loser effects are in operation, wins and losses are randomly distributed throughout a group (i.e., no discernible hierarchy). When pure and bystander winner effects are jointly in place, a linear hierarchy, in which all positions (i.e., {alpha} to {delta} when N = 4) are clearly defined, emerges. Joint pure and bystander loser effects produce the same result. In principle one could test the predictions from the models developed here in a straightforward comparative study. Hopefully, the results of this model will spur on such studies in the future.
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Dugatkin, L. A. (1997). Winner and loser effects and the structure of dominance hierarchies. Behav. Ecol., 8(6), 583–587.
Abstract: In the literature on dominance hierarchies, “winner” and “loser” effects usually are denned as an increased probability of winning at time T, bated on victories at time T-l, T-2, etc, and an increased probability of losing at time T, based on losing at T-1, T-2, etc., respectively. Despite some early theoretical work on winner and loser effects, these factors and how they affect the structure of dominance hierarchies have not been examined in detail. I developed a computer simulation to examine winner and loser effects when such effects are independent of one another (as well as when they interact) and when combatants assess each other's resource-holding power. When winner effects alone were important, a hierarchy in which all individuals held an unambiguous rank was found. When only loser effects were important, a dear alpha individual always emerged, but the rank of others in the group was often unclear because of the scarcity of aggressive interactions. Increasing winner effects for a given value of the loser effect increase the number of individuals with unambiguous positions in a hierarchy and the converse is true for increasing the value of the loser effect for a given winner effect Although winner and loser effects have been documented in a number of species, no study has documented both winner and loser effects (using some controlled, pairwise testing system) and the detailed nature of behavioral interactions when individuals are in groups. I hope the results of this model will spur such studies in the future.
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Dugatkin, L. A. (1992). Tendency to inspect predators predicts mortality risk in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). Behav. Ecol., 3(2), 124–127.
Abstract: Although predator inspection behavior in fishes has become a model system for examining game theoretical strategies such as Tit for Tat, the direct costs of inspection behavior have not been quantified. To begin quantifying such costs, I conducted an experiment that examined mortality due to predation as a function of predator inspection in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). Before being subjected to a “survivorship” experiment, guppies were assayed for their tendency to inspect a predator. Groups were then composed of six guppies that differed in their tendency to inspect. These groups were placed into a pool containing a predator, and survivorship of guppies with different inspection tendencies was noted 36 and 60 h later. Results indicate that individuals that display high degrees of inspection behavior suffer greater mortality than their noninspecting shoalmates.
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