title: Acoustic signalling reflects personality in a social mammal.
abstract: Social interactions among individuals are often mediated through acoustic signals. If acoustic signals are consistent and related to an individual's personality, these consistent individual differences in signalling may be an important driver in social interactions. However, few studies in non-human mammals have investigated the relationship between acoustic signalling and personality. Here we show that acoustic signalling rate is repeatable and strongly related to personality in a highly social mammal, the domestic pig (Sus scrofa domestica). Furthermore, acoustic signalling varied between environments of differing quality, with males from a poor-quality environment having a reduced vocalization rate compared with females and males from an enriched environment. Such differences may be mediated by personality with pigs from a poor-quality environment having more reactive and more extreme personality scores compared with pigs from an enriched environment. Our results add to the evidence that acoustic signalling reflects personality in a non-human mammal. Signals reflecting personalities may have far reaching consequences in shaping the evolution of social behaviours as acoustic communication forms an integral part of animal societies.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences , Queen's University Belfast, Medical Biology Centre , Belfast BT9 7BL , UK.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Friel
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences , Queen's University Belfast, Medical Biology Centre , Belfast BT9 7BL , UK.
authors.forename: Hansjoerg P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Kunc
authors.affiliation: School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences , Nottingham Trent University , Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU , UK.
authors.forename: Kym
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Griffin
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behaviour and Evolution, Institute of Neuroscience , Newcastle University , Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU , UK.
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Asher
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences , University of Lincoln , Brayford Pool, Lincoln LN6 7TS , UK.
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Collins
keywords: acoustic signalling; animal personality; environmental enrichment; pig