Parasites and their social hosts form many different relationships. But what kind of selection regimes are important? A look at the parameters that determine fitness of the two parties suggests that social hosts differ from solitary ones primarily in the structure of transmission pathways. Because transmission is, both, the physical encounter of a new host and infecting it, several different elements

Abstract Urbanisation is a globally occurring phenomenon and is predicted to continue increasing rapidly. Urban ecosystems present novel environments and challenges which species must acclimate or adapt to. These novel challenges alter existing or create new selection pressures on behaviours which provide an opportunity to investigate eco-evolutionary responses to contemporary environmental change

Abstract Artificial light at night is increasing globally, interfering with both sensory ecology and temporal rhythms of organisms, from zooplankton to mammals. This interference can change the behaviour of the affected organisms, and hence compromise the viability of their populations. Limiting the use of artificial light may mitigate these negative effects. Accordingly, we investigated whether the

Abstract Coordinated behaviors, such as hunting in lions and coordinated vigilance as antipredator behavior, are examples of benefits of group-living. Instead of asynchronous vigilance, some social species synchronize their vigilance bouts or take turns acting as sentinels. To increase our knowledge on the evolution of vigilance behavior, we studied whether vigilance is coordinated in Barbary ground

Abstract Populations of migratory bird species have suffered a sustained and severe decline for several decades. Contrary to non-migratory species, understanding the causal mechanisms proves difficult (for migratory bird species) as underlying processes may operate across broad geographic ranges and stages of the annual cycle. Therefore, the identification of migration routes, wintering grounds, and

Abstract Digital photography and spectrometry are widely used for colour measurement, but both methods have a number of advantages and disadvantages. Comparative studies can help determine the most appropriate method for quantifying animal colour perception, but few have attempted to compare them based on colour model conversion. Here we compare colour measurements from digital photography and spectrometry

Abstract Social interactions with conspecifics are key to the fitness of most animals and, through the transmission opportunities they provide, are also key to the fitness of their parasites. As a result, research to date has largely focused on the role of host social behavior in imposing selection on parasites, particularly their virulence and transmission phenotypes. However, host social behavior

Abstract A key benefit of sociality is a reduction in predation risk. Cohesive group behaviour and rapid collective decision making are essential for reducing predation risk in groups. Parasite infection might reduce an individuals’ grouping behaviours and thereby change the behaviour of the group as a whole. To investigate the relationship between parasite infection and grouping behaviours, we studied

Abstract Aquatic prey can gauge predation risk using chemical information, including chemical alarm cues — released when prey are injured, disturbance cues — released when prey are threatened, or the odour of the predator itself. While a lot of work has focused on alarm cues, disturbance cues remained poorly studied in freshwater systems, and has been virtually omitted in marine ones. In the current

Abstract In species where males use long-distance acoustic signals for mate attraction, male mating success is typically attributed to condition-dependent male signalling and female mate choice in response to the variation in male signal quality. However, condition-dependent female response to male signals might also affect male mating success, especially in orthopteran insects, where mating pair formation

Abstract Social thermoregulation is the huddling of two or more individuals that share endogenous warmth to reduce thermoregulation costs. Strategies vary widely depending on the species’ social behavior and the ambient ecological conditions. In greater white-toothed shrews (Crocidura russula), huddling is employed in communal nests only in the colder months, which suggests that temperature is an important

Abstract Inbreeding depression is commonly considered an evolutionary influence on pre-copulatory mechanisms of inbreeding avoidance. Inbreeding may be minimized by: (1) delayed maturation and reproduction, (2) sex-biased dispersal, (3) behavioural avoidance of mating with relatives, and/or (4) mating by females with multiple males (polyandry). Time constraints on reproduction and limited opportunities

Abstract Crested auklets (Aethia cristatella) are colonial seabirds with brilliant orange bills during the breeding season. We characterized the bill pigment with spectroscopy methods (resonance Raman, fluorescence, absorbance). We excluded carotenoids as a possible chromophore and showed that the pigment most closely resembles pterins. Like pterins, the bill pigment fluoresces, and it occurred in

Abstract Maternal effects mediated by nutrients or specific endocrine states of the mother can affect infant development. Specifically, pre- and postnatal maternal stress associated with elevated glucocorticoid (GC) output is known to influence the phenotype of the offspring, including their physical and behavioral development. These developmental processes, however, remain relatively poorly studied

Abstract Tadpoles can respond to perceived predation risk by adjusting their life history, morphology, and behavior in an adaptive way. Adaptive phenotypic plasticity can evolve by natural selection only if there is variation in reaction norms and if this variation is, at least in part, heritable. To provide insights into the evolution of adaptive phenotypic plasticity, we analyzed the environmental

Abstract As animals develop, their capacities to sense cues, assess threats, and perform actions change, as do the relative costs and benefits that underlie behavioural decisions. We presented ambiguous cues to test if hatching decisions of red-eyed treefrogs, Agalychnis callidryas, change developmentally following adaptive predictions based on changing costs of decision errors. These arboreal embryos

Abstract Size-assortative mating is a pattern of non-random pairing among individuals that has been presumed to arise due to the enhanced reproductive success that may accrue from mating with an individual of similar size. Its proximal mechanism may be female choice for similarly sized mates and/or large-male advantage during bouts of direct male-male competition. The hallmark for the occurrence of

Abstract Widespread recognition of the contribution of individual differences in behavioral phenotype to evolutionary processes raises questions as to their developmental origin: when and in what contexts such differences emerge and what aspects of the developmental environment contribute to these? We studied individual differences among littermates of the domestic cat Felis silvestris catus when competing

Abstract The wool carder bee Anthidium manicatum is one textbook example of resource defense polygyny among solitary bees, known for intense male–male competition, forced copulations, and the extreme form of interspecific territoriality toward other flower visitors. This mating system depends on the spatial structure of the defended resource and requires several adaptations in males. The allocation

Abstract Individuals within animal societies are expected to mitigate the costs and enhance the benefits associated with group living. For example, sociality can facilitate the sharing of beneficial microbes among individuals, but can also increase transmission of pathogens, representing a major cost of group living. We examined the costs of sociality in the California slender salamander (Batrachoseps

Abstract Many group-living individuals produce specific vocalizations while mobbing (when individuals move toward and harass a predator), a behavior that can recruit conspecifics. Although these vocalizations may be a source of information for heterospecifics, it remains largely unknown how heterospecifics respond to mobbing calls given by group-living species. In this study, we investigate whether

Abstract In species that live in family groups, such as cooperative breeders, inbreeding is usually avoided through the recognition of familiar kin. For example, individuals may avoid mating with conspecifics encountered regularly in infancy, as these likely include parents, siblings, and closely related alloparents. Other mechanisms have also been reported, albeit rarely; for example, individuals

Abstract Biological invasions are a prominent example of human-induced environmental change that pose a significant threat to worldwide biodiversity. Recent evidence suggests that behavioural traits play a key role in mediating invasion success. However, little research has investigated how rapidly behavioural traits can change during the initial stages of invasion. We investigated the influence of

Abstract Generalist avian brood parasites commonly serve as a model system to test for plasticity in offspring growth and behavior under various host environmental and parental regimes. While past research has provided compelling evidence that developmental rates differ among hosts, the fitness consequences of such variation remain unclear. In hosts, carryover effects from the nesting to the post-fledging

Abstract The introduction of species outside their native range is an insidious form of human-induced environmental change, with mounting evidence that behaviour, either through plastic behavioural responses or adaptive changes, can play a vital role in mediating invasion success. In particular, when species invade non-native habitats, they often leave behind native predators. Altered predator assemblages

Abstract Hummingbirds utilize visual cues to locate flowers, but little is known about the role olfaction plays in nectar foraging despite observations that hummingbirds avoid resources occupied by certain insects. We investigated the behavioral responses of both wild and captive hummingbirds to olfactory cues of hymenopteran floral visitors, including native wood ants (Formica francoeuri), invasive

Abstract Many biological invasions occur within and between urban areas. If native species adapted to anthropogenically altered habitats are subsequently moved from an urban area in their native range to one within a novel region, then their urban-specialized phenotypes may provide them an advantage via prior adaptation. Here we examine if urban-derived behavioral traits are present within native guttural

Abstract Preferences for mating cues can have important effects on speciation in natural hybrid zones. While mating preferences of parental species are well studied, hybrid preferences for cues of parental species have received less attention. Nevertheless, hybrid preferences have potentially important consequences for reproductive isolation and patterns of introgression. Here, we test preferences

Abstract The source of maternal energy supporting reproduction (i.e., stored or incoming) is an important factor determining different breeding strategies (capital, income or mixed) in female mammals. Key periods of energy storage and allocation might induce behavioral and physiological shifts in females, and investigating their distribution throughout reproduction helps in determining vulnerable phases

Abstract Across the eusocial Hymenoptera, a queen’s mating frequency is positively associated with her workers’ genetic diversity and colony’s fitness. Over 90% of a colony’s diversity potential is achieved by its mother’s tenth effective mating (me); however, many females mate at levels of me > 10, a zone we here call hyperpolyandry. We compared honey bee colony fitness at mating levels near and above

Abstract Many key questions in evolutionary ecology require the use of variance ratios such as heritability, repeatability, and individual resource specialization. These ratios allow researchers to understand how phenotypic variation is structured into genetic and non-genetic components, to identify how much organisms vary in the resources they use or how functional traits structure species communities

Abstract There is growing evidence that animals gain information from heterospecifics, but utilising other species’ signals has rarely been reported in invertebrates. Herein, I conducted field experiments in a mixed colony of two crab species, Scopimera globosa and Austruca lactea, to test whether S. globosa discriminate several different displays of neighbouring male A. lactea. Three types of ‘intruders’

Abstract Conspicuous signals, such as acoustic sexual signals, can be “risky” in that they may be overheard by competitors. This means the signaller must balance the benefits of signaling to the intended receiver with the costs of providing information to these competitors. Depending on the signaller context, this balance may change. Male humpback whales produce long, high amplitude songs. This conspicuous

Social interactions are required for the direct transmission of infectious diseases. Consequently, the social network structure of populations plays a key role in shaping infectious disease dynamics. A huge research effort has examined how specific social network structures make populations more (or less) vulnerable to damaging epidemics. However, it can be just as important to understand how social

Abstract The trade-off between lifespan and reproduction is central to our understanding of life-history evolution. Laboratory selection experiments have been a powerful tool for quantifying this trade-off, but these tend to be restricted in taxonomic scope, which may limit our understanding. In addition, research often focuses on the trade-off between lifespan and reproductive effort in females, and

Fostering and allo-suckling are widespread among pinnipeds, and several hypotheses have been formulated to explain their occurrence. Here, we describe the occurrence of allo-suckling in harbour seals from photo-identification data of females and pups in Orkney (Scotland) during the pupping seasons between 2016 and 2019. We used a generalised linear model framework to investigate the effect of allo-suckling

Abstract Animal vocal communication ranges from simple to complex based on repertoire size, structure and composition of calls and the information encoded in them. It is expected that social species will possess a functionally and structurally complex vocal repertoire. While several studies on mammalian systems exist supporting this, evidence from avian systems is comparatively limited. Towards this

Abstract Understanding the information content of animal displays is crucial for studying signal function and evolution. Previous works focused largely on display variations and their adaptation to background noise, with limited attention to the information content. Here, we explored the information content of tail displays of an Asian agamid lizard Phrynocephalus vlangalii and tested two non-exclusive

Abstract Some birds cover their eggs with nest material when they leave to forage. It has been suggested that such egg-covering aids thermoregulation or prevents predation but here we present a new hypothesis, that secondary cavity-nesting species cover their eggs to prevent nest usurpation by other birds. When the bottom of the cavity is dark, as when eggs are covered by nest material, it may be difficult

Abstract Males and females often have divergent evolutionary interests, generating sexual conflicts. This is particularly true in organisms that exhibit facultative sexuality, whereby females are capable of reproducing without fitness costs of mating. Here, we provide the first documented evidence with quantitative tracking showing that sex interacts with social context to determine space-use of females

Abstract Adverse experiences during early life exert important effects on development, health, reproduction, and social bonds, with consequences often persisting across generations. A mother’s early life experiences can impact her offspring’s development through a number of pathways, such as maternal care, physiological signaling through glucocorticoids, or even intergenerational effects like epigenetic

Abstract Forest monkeys often form semi-permanent mixed-species associations to increase group-size related anti-predator benefits without corresponding increases in resource competition. In this study, we analysed the alarm call system of lesser spot-nosed monkeys, a primate that spends most of its time in mixed-species groups while occupying the lowest and presumably most dangerous part of the forest

Abstract In eusocial insects, worker polymorphism is shaped by several factors, including colony size, queen mating frequency, and the timing of queen-worker differentiation during larval development. In a comparative study of 18 species of Cataglyphis desert ants representing a wide range of worker sizes, we used phylogenetically controlled analyses to examine correlations between worker head width

Abstract Interaction with its immediate environment determines the ecology of an organism. Short-lived perturbations in the habitat can adversely affect both wild and domesticated species. When such disturbances are unpredictable, they are more challenging to tackle. Therefore, specific strategies become essential for species to overcome adversities that can alter their dynamics. Species living in

Aggressive behaviours occur throughout the animal kingdom and agonistic contests often govern access to resources. Nutrition experienced during development has the potential to influence aggressive behaviours in adults through effects on growth, energy budgets and an individual’s internal state. In particular, resource-poor developmental nutrition might decrease adult aggression by limiting growth

Abstract Many species rear offspring in fixed sites, returning frequently to provision them, and the selection of these sites is a critical decision in the life cycle, as they may in some instances increase susceptibility to predators. African wild dogs are a groupliving large carnivore that rear their offspring in fixed sites, provisioning dependent pups in dens for 3 months post-birth. Where possible

Abstract The existence of among-individual variation in behaviour within populations is poorly understood. Recent theory suggests that fine-scale individual differences in investment into current versus future reproduction may lead to a ‘slow-fast’-pace-of-life continuum, also referred to as the ‘pace-of-life-syndrome’ (POLS) hypothesis. According to this idea, individuals are predicted to differ in

Abstract Climate change and the subsequent increase of global temperature are the most current and important threats to biodiversity. Despite the importance of temperature, our knowledge about the level of behavioural and physiological adaptations of ant species from temperate regions to cope with high temperatures is limited compared to the broad knowledge of typical thermal specialists from warmer

Abstract The extent to which host group size affects the hosts’ exposure to parasites and pathogens has been explored by behavioral ecologists for almost 50 years, and we know that host and parasite taxa, mobility of host and parasite, and the extent of spatial structure within groups all affect the group-size relationship. Here we examine how the prevalence of an arthropod-borne viral pathogen changes

Abstract Social networks capture the occurrence, direction and strength of pairwise interactions among individual animals in a group. Their structure has proven to be a key determinant of the patterns of parasite transmission and disease spread within groups. In contrast, little is known about how parasites themselves may have influenced the evolution of host social networks. Here, we use a comparative

Abstract The ability to recognize the identity of conspecifics is a key component for survival of many animal species and is fundamental to social interactions such as parental care, intra-sexual competition or mate recognition. In group-living species, the simultaneous co-existence of many individuals increases the number of interactions and reinforces the need for individual recognition. Acoustic

Abstract Neophobia (the fearful reaction to novel stimuli or situations) has a crucial effect on individual fitness and can vary within and across species. However, the factors predicting this variation are still unclear. In this study, we assessed whether individual characteristics (rank, social integration, sex) and species socio-ecological characteristics (dietary breadth, group size, domestication)

Abstract In socially monogamous animals, maintaining stable mating pairs across years has been hypothesized to result in increased reproductive success. However, previous individual breeding experience may independently affect reproductive success, regardless of pair stability. We examined associations between pair composition based on previous breeding experience, pair longevity, and reproduction

Abstract In cooperatively breeding species, the level of investment by both breeders and helpers may be influenced by the sex of offspring in broods that they attend, due to different fitness payoffs associated with investing in male versus female offspring. This might be expected if the sexes differ markedly in either the cost of their rearing, due to factors such as sexual size dimorphism, or the

Abstract Social interactions of animals depend on a complex interplay of signals, receivers, and internal and external information available to the participants. Mate choice decisions in breeding aggregations, in particular, represent some of the most consequential such interactions. As a measure of female mate preferences, we examined the strength of phonotaxis toward male advertisement calls that

Abstract Colour signals are ubiquitous in nature but only recently have researchers recognised the potential of ultraviolet (UV)-reflecting colour patches to function as signals of quality. Lacertid lizards often display UV-blue patches on their flanks and black spots over their entire body, both of which are under sexual selection. They also have a cryptic dorsum and some species have a conspicuous

Abstract Most burrowing shrimps (infraorder Axiidea and Gebiidea) are characterized by solitary habits, which led many of these species to evolve a remarkable sexual dimorphism both in body size and chelipeds because of sexual selection. Given that monogamous species are known to live in heterosexual pairs and exhibit a low degree of sexual dimorphism, it is expected that burrowing shrimps are not

Abstract Acoustic signals are one of the reproductive isolation mechanisms that can be a driving force for speciation. Evidence that geographic variation in mating calls can cause reproductive isolation is abundant for birds and frogs, but not for mammals. In the Callosciurus genus of tree squirrels distributed in Southeast Asia, males emit mating calls to attract females and the sound properties are

Abstract Food calls are widespread across many mammal and bird species, but the reasons of this adaptive success are not yet fully understood. Using data from four habituated groups of western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) in Central Africa, we investigated the possible influence of ecological (food type and quantity) and social factors (presence, arrival and departure of specific group members) on food

Abstract Toothed whales use powerful ultrasonic biosonar pulses (i.e. clicks) for echolocation. Underwater acoustic recordings have suggested that the majority of toothed whale species can be grouped acoustically as either producing broadband clicks or narrowband high-frequency (NBHF) clicks. Recently, it has been shown that Heaviside’s dolphins, Cephalorhynchus heavisidii, emit NBHF clicks for echolocation