Link between past threatening experience and future neophobic behaviour depends on physiological stress responsiveness
Section snippets
Study Subjects and General Methods
Florida scrub-jays are cooperative breeders that defend year-round, group-held territories in oak scrub habitat in peninsular Florida, U.S.A. (Woolfenden & Fitzpatrick, 1984). Breeding pairs are genetically and socially monogamous, and there is a single breeding pair per group (Quinn, Woolfenden, Fitzpatrick, & White, 1999; Townsend, Bowman, Fitzpatrick, Dent, & Lovette, 2011; Woolfenden & Fitzpatrick, 1984). Offspring generally remain on their parents' territory as ‘helpers-at-the-nest’ until
Results
Corrected integrated CORT levels ranged from 171.2 to 684.9 ng/ml × min (mean ± SD = 403.3 ± 147.0 ng/ml × min, N = 28). SI CORT was similar between groups (t test: t25.5 = 0.14, P = 0.89). Captured birds took longer to approach and enter the ring than control birds (Table 1).
We found a statistically significant interaction between treatment and SI CORT for both latency to approach the novel ring within 30 cm (Cox proportional hazard model: z = 2.61, P = 0.009) and latency to enter the ring (z = 2.02, P =
Discussion
Florida scrub-jays exposed to a threatening encounter subsequently exhibited a greater neophobic response compared to controls, but only among individuals with a low SI CORT response. Conversely, high CORT responders were equally or even less neophobic following a threatening encounter compared to naïve controls. Our finding that low SI CORT individuals that had been captured previously were the most neophobic was contrary to our prediction that captured birds with high SI CORT would exhibit
Conflict of Interest
None.
Acknowledgments
We thank Archbold Biological Station for hosting our research, particularly Reed Bowman and Hilary Swain. We also thank Thomas Small, Emily Elderbrock, Katie, Moriah, Miranda, Mackenzie and Meleia Hall for assistance in data collection. Comments from Todd Freeberg and four anonymous referees improved the manuscript. This study was funded by a National Science Foundation grant to S.J.S. (IOS-09019899), as well as a Florida Ornithological Society's Helen G. and Allan D. Cruickshank Research Award
References (85)
- et al.
Behavioural and hormonal effects of social isolation and neophobia in a gregarious bird species, the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Hormones and Behavior
(2008) - et al.
Corticosterone responses differ between lines of great tits (Parus major) selected for divergent personalities
General and Comparative Endocrinology
(2012) - et al.
Baseline and stress-induced glucocorticoid concentrations are not repeatable but covary within individual great tits (Parus major)
General and Comparative Endocrinology
(2014) - et al.
Initial reactivity and magnitude of the acute stress response associated with personality in wild great tits (Parus major)
General and Comparative Endocrinology
(2013) - et al.
Associative learning is inversely related to reversal learning and varies with nestling corticosterone exposure
Animal Behaviour
(2016) - et al.
The repeatability of behaviour: A meta-analysis
Animal Behaviour
(2009) - et al.
Corticosterone facilitates extinction of fear memory in BALB/c mice but strengthens cue related fear in C57BL/6 mice
Experimental Neurology
(2009) - et al.
Lab and field experiments: Are they the same animal?
Hormones and Behavior
(2009) Individual variation in glucocorticoid stress responses in animals
General and Comparative Endocrinology
(2013)- et al.
Individual variation and repeatability of corticosterone responses of little penguins (Eudyptula minor) sampled in two successive years at Oamaru, New Zealand
General and Comparative Endocrinology
(2017)
Sight of a predator can stimulate a corticosterone response in the great tit (Parus major)
General and Comparative Endocrinology
Behavioural reaction norms: Animal personality meets individual plasticity
Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Influence of corticosterone treatment on nestling begging in Florida scrub-jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens)
General and Comparative Endocrinology
Testing for the presence of coping styles in a wild mammal
Animal Behaviour
Corticosterone stress response shows long-term repeatability and links to personality in free-living Nazca boobies
General and Comparative Endocrinology
The role of the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal/interrenal axis in mediating predator-avoidance trade-offs
General and Comparative Endocrinology
Fear of humans in Japanese quail selected for low or high adrenocortical response
Physiology & Behavior
The glucocorticoid response in a free-living bird predicts whether long-lasting memories fade or strengthen with time
Animal Behaviour
Two seconds is all it takes: European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) increase levels of circulating glucocorticoids after witnessing a brief raptor attack
Hormones and Behavior
Neuroendocrinology of coping styles: Towards understanding the biology of individual variation
Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology
Coping styles in animals: Current status in behavior and stress-physiology
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
Consolidation and reconsolidation: Two lives of memories?
Neuron
Stress responsiveness affects dominant–subordinate relationships in rainbow trout
Hormones and Behavior
Development of the adrenal stress response in the Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens)
General and Comparative Endocrinology
Repeatability of baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels across early life stages in the Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens)
Hormones and Behavior
The influence of nest attendance and provisioning on nestling stress physiology in the Florida scrub-jay
Hormones and Behavior
Collecting baseline corticosterone samples in the field: Is under 3 min good enough?
Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology
Response to environmental change in rainbow trout selected for divergent stress coping styles
Physiology & Behavior
Divergence in behavioural responses to stress in two strains of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) with contrasting stress responsiveness
Hormones and Behavior
Food supplementation and possible mechanisms underlying early breeding in the Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens)
Hormones and Behavior
Behavioral syndromes: An ecological and evolutionary overview
Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Stress-responsiveness influences baseline glucocorticoid levels: Revisiting the under 3 min sampling rule
General and Comparative Endocrinology
Physiological and genetic correlates of boldness: Characterising the mechanisms of behavioural variation in rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss
Hormones and Behavior
Plumage reflectance signals dominance in Florida scrub-jay, Aphelocoma coerulescens, juveniles
Animal Behaviour
Differences in basal and stress-induced HPA regulation of wild house mice selected for high and low aggression
Hormones and Behavior
Age-related differences in baseline and stress-induced corticosterone in Florida scrub-jays
General and Comparative Endocrinology
The economics of fleeing from predators
Advances in the Study of Behavior
Survival and event history analysis: A process point of view
Individual differences in neophobia: Relationships with stress-physiology, experience, and learning
Exposure to predation generates personality in threespined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
Ecology Letters
Phenotypically plastic neophobia: A response to variable predation risk
Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B: Biological Sciences
The stress response of European stonechats depends on the type of stressor
Behaviour
Cited by (0)
- 1
Present address: Bennington College, Science and Mathematics, 1 College Dr., Bennington, VT 05201–6003, U.S.A.