How the dynamics of personality variation, food intake and social interactions determine anti-predator escape

Projektinformationen

DynFish

ID Finanzhilfevereinbarung: 891915

DOI

10.3030/891915

Das Projekt endete am 6 Mai 2022

EK-Unterschriftsdatum 11 März 2020

Startdatum 14 Mai 2021

Enddatum 13 Mai 2023

Finanziert unter

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Gesamtkosten

€ 212 933,76

EU-Beitrag

€ 212 933,76

Koordiniert durch

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DynFish (How the dynamics of personality variation, food intake and social interactions determine anti-predator escape)

Berichtszeitraum: 2021-05-14 bis 2023-05-13

Zusammenfassung vom Kontext und den Gesamtzielen des Projekts

Escape responses (reaction to a predator or threatening stimulus) are one of the most critical behaviour to determine the survival of individuals. In recent years, it has become apparent that individuals differ consistently from one another in their behaviour, often called ‘animal personality variation’. Boldness, which refers to the extent to which animals take risks, is a major personality trait that has important ecological and evolutionary implications. While it is widely accepted that boldest animals can benefit from a greater access to food, how and why bolder individuals are more likely to be preyed upon remain to be investigated.

In this project I study how the relationship between boldness, food intake and predation risk shapes anti-predator escape responses, and explain how mortality risk can generate personality variation in boldness. For this purpose, I test individuals and groups of three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in an experimental setup that tracks the movement of individuals on real-time and automatically triggers a decoy predator. Second, I couple this experimental data with computer simulations to provide new insights into the evolution schooling behaviour and maintenance of personality variation under different ecological conditions.

Society may benefit from this project because understanding the factors that affect animal survival is important for species conservation. Additionally, I bring new tools to investigate escape responses in animals, that can be used in natural or laboratory conditions. Finally, the results from computer simulations could be of use to develop new advances in the collective motion of robots, that have countless applications for society.

Arbeit, die ab Beginn des Projekts bis zum Ende des durch den Bericht erfassten Berichtszeitraums geleistet wurde, und die wichtigsten bis dahin erzielten Ergebnisse

During this period, I built an experimental setup that analyses data in real-time to automatically trigger a predator (decoy heron) when fish are located at a specific location. This setup is composed of low-cost material and open-source software. The code and instructions on how to build the setup will be published together with our first publication. I also carried out the experimental work of this project with individuals and groups, and analysed the behavioural data (eg. trajectories, latency to leave refuge, food-intake).

The results obtained so far are very promising. Sticklebacks obtained from natural populations display consistency in their boldness, food-intake and escape response over time. This data is currently being analysed and is expected to be published in two different manuscripts. These results, together with the introduction of the new state-of-the-art setup, were presented in lab seminars of the University of Bristol, but due to Covid-19, all conferences were suspended and could not be presented to a broader audience. I believe that this new setup and the results obtained from our experiments, will be of interest for many researchers studying animal behaviour in a dynamic world.

Fortschritte, die über den aktuellen Stand der Technik hinausgehen und voraussichtliche potenzielle Auswirkungen (einschließlich der bis dato erzielten sozioökonomischen Auswirkungen und weiter gefassten gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen des Projekts)

I introduce a beyond the state-of-the-art device, that on the one hand allows automatised control of the decoy predator, and on the other hand decouples the visual stimulus (seeing the predator) from the tactile stimulus (wave detected through the lateral line of fish), as the predator doesn’t touch the water.
I believe that the full analysis of the experimental data will bring new information to explain shoaling patterns and escape behaviour in fish and how variation in animal personality evolves in social groups. These results altogether will have a potential impact for research in behavioural ecology and evolution, and will be of interest to the growing body of researchers interested on the interface between collective behaviour and robotics.

Picture of the decoy predator used

Before and after automatically triggering the predator during group experiments

Setup to test escape response with individual fish