Files and links (1)
Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Active crocodiles are less sociable
Royal Society of London. Philosophical Transactions B. Biological Sciences, Vol.379(1912), pp.1-11
2024
PMID: 39230456
Abstract
How animals move and associate with conspecifics is rarely random, with a population’s spatial structure forming the foundation on which the social behaviours of individuals form. Studies examining the spatial–social interface typically measure averaged behavioural differences between individuals; however, this neglects the inherent variation present within individuals and how it may impact the spatial–social interface. Here, we investigated differences in among-individual (co)variance in sociability, activity and site fidelity in a population of wild estuarine crocodiles, Crocodylus porosus, across a 10-year period. By monitoring 118 crocodiles using coded acoustic transmitters and an array of fixed underwater receivers, we discovered that not only did individual crocodiles repeatably differ (among-individual variation) in each behaviour measured but also in how consistently they expressed these behaviours through time (within-individual variation). As expected, crocodile activity and sociability formed a behavioural syndrome, with more active individuals being less sociable. Interestingly, we also found that individuals that were either more sociable or displayed greater site fidelity were also more specialized (lower within-individual variation) in these behaviours. Together, our results provide important empirical evidence for the interplay between spatial, temporal and social individual-level behavioural variation and how these contribute to forming behavioural niches.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘The spatial–social interface: a theoretical and empirical integration’.
Details
- Title
- Active crocodiles are less sociable
- Authors
- Cameron J. Baker (Corresponding Author) - The University of QueenslandBarbara Class (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringRoss G. Dwyer (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringCraig E. Franklin (Author) - The University of QueenslandHamish A. Campbell (Author) - Charles Darwin UniversityTerri R. Irwin (Author) - Australia ZooCéline H. Frère (Author) - The University of Queensland
- Publication details
- Royal Society of London. Philosophical Transactions B. Biological Sciences, Vol.379(1912), pp.1-11
- Publisher
- The Royal Society Publishing
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1098/rstb.2022.0528
- ISSN
- 1471-2970; 0962-8436
- PMID
- 39230456
- Copyright note
- © 2024 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
- Data Availability
- The raw and processed data, along with all of the R code supporting the analyses reported in this article are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad/cfxpnvxcg.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991062898802621
- Output Type
- Journal article
Metrics
2 File views/ downloads
28 Record Views