Effects of social experience during development on competitive ability and personality traits in male domestic fowl

• The ability to dominate conspecifics and thereby gain access to important resources depends on a number of traits and skills that may be both heritable and influenced by the environment. Experience of dominance relationships during development is a potential source of learning such skills. We here study the relative importance of social experience, personality, and morphological traits on competitive ability in male domestic fowl (Gallus gallus domesticus). By letting males grow up as either a single (dominant) male, as the dominant male of a pair, or as an intermediate ranked male in a group of males, we investigate if competitiveness in social interactions (winning duels) is mainly due to individual qualities or also influenced by social experience. We found that males were consistent over time in their competitive ability. Single raised males were inferior to pair dominant males and group-raised males in competitive ability, while pair dominant and group males did not differ significantly. This indicates that social training is important for future fighting success, but that the social position during development does not have a decisive influence on male fighting success in adulthood. Aggression and comb size, the latter possibly being a proxy for testosterone levels, had a marked effect on competitive ability. Together, our results indicate that certain behavioural and morphological traits are more important than experience of a social position in shaping competitive ability. These findings elucidate the relationship between social dominance and personality.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Etologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Behavioural Sciences Biology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

aggression

ontogeny

personality

social dominance

social rank

social status

social niche

etologi

Ethology

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