The Female Perspective of Personality in a Wild Songbird: Repeatable Aggressiveness Relates to Exploration Behaviour.

ABSTRACT: Males often express traits that improve competitive ability, such as aggressiveness. Females also express such traits but our understanding about why is limited. Intraspecific aggression between females might be used to gain access to reproductive resources but simultaneously incurs costs in terms of energy and time available for reproductive activities, resulting in a trade-off. Although consistent individual differences in female behaviour (i.e. personality) like aggressiveness are likely to influence these reproductive trade-offs, little is known about the consistency of aggressiveness in females. To quantify aggression we presented a female decoy to free-living female great tits (Parus major) during the egg-laying period, and assessed whether they were consistent in their response towa

SUBMITTER: Thys B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5550452 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature