title: Consistent individual differences in the social phenotypes of wild great tits,Parus major.
abstract: Despite growing interest in animal social networks, surprisingly little is known about whether individuals are consistent in their social network characteristics. Networks are rarely repeatedly sampled; yet an assumption of individual consistency in social behaviour is often made when drawing conclusions about the consequences of social processes and structure. A characterization of such social phenotypes is therefore vital to understanding the significance of social network structure for individual fitness outcomes, and for understanding the evolution and ecology of individual variation in social behaviour more broadly. Here, we measured foraging associations over three winters in a large PIT-tagged population of great tits, and used a range of social network metrics to quantify individual variation in social behaviour. We then examined repeatability in social behaviour over both short (week to week) and long (year to year) timescales, and investigated variation in repeatability across age and sex classes. Social behaviours were significantly repeatable across all timescales, with the highest repeatability observed in group size choice and unweighted degree, a measure of gregariousness. By conducting randomizations to control for the spatial and temporal distribution of individuals, we further show that differences in social phenotypes were not solely explained by within-population variation in local densities, but also reflected fine-scale variation in social decision making. Our results provide rare evidence of stable social phenotypes in a wild population of animals. Such stable social phenotypes can be targets of selection and may have important fitness consequences, both for individuals and for their social-foraging associates.
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K. ; Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, CA, U.S.A.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Aplin
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Firth
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K. ; Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, CA, U.S.A. ; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancon, Panama.
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Farine
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Voelkl
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Crates
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Culina
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Garroway
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Hinde
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Kidd
authors.affiliation: Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Psorakis
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.
authors.forename: N D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Milligan
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K. ; Evolutionary Ecology Unit, Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Radersma
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Verhelst
authors.affiliation: Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K. ; Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: B C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Sheldon
keywords: Parus major; animal personality; repeatability; social behaviour; socixal network analysis