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Social environment determines the effect of boldness and activity on survival
Simon Pearish1, Miles K Bensky1, Alison M Bell1
1Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois, 505 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL.
Abstract:
Populations of animals are composed of individuals that differ in ecologically relevant behaviors. Building evidence also suggests that individuals occupy different social niches. Here, in a mark-recapture experiment, we show evidence of an interacting effect of behavior and social niche on survival in the wild: bold individuals had higher survival if they were initially captured in groups while shy, inactive individuals had higher survival if they were initially captured when alone. These findings provide support for the hypothesis that behavioral type-environment correlations can be favored by natural selection.
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