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

Informations projet

DynFish

N° de convention de subvention: 891915

DOI

10.3030/891915

Projet clôturé le 6 Mai 2022

Date de signature de la CE 11 Mars 2020

Date de début 14 Mai 2021

Date de fin 13 Mai 2023

Financé au titre de

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Coût total

€ 212 933,76

Contribution de l’UE

€ 212 933,76

Coordonné par

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)

Période du rapport: 2021-05-14 au 2023-05-13

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

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.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

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.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

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