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The link between social network density and rank-order consistency of aggressiveness in juvenile eels

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Abstract

The emergence of an animal’s personality is the result of interactions between genetics, environment and experience. It is known that individuals are able to modulate their behaviour according to the context or the social environment. Many studies have shown for example, that familiarity among conspecifics diminishes aggressiveness, although little is known about the underlying processes. Nevertheless, personality traits have long been determined while ignoring the social context, especially in lower vertebrates such as fish. In the present experiment, we hypothesize that group connections (network density) may be positively correlated to consistency of aggressiveness by avoiding over-aggressive acts in further encounters. To test this hypothesis, we used eels (Anguilla anguilla) as a model species and monitored both aggressiveness and sociability in 64 individuals over their first 7 months of growth from the glass eel stage. As expected, social fish were less aggressive than their non-social counterparts at all times, highlighting the existence of a behavioural syndrome in eels. Additionally, rank-order consistency of aggressiveness was higher in groups of fish with high social connectivity, compared to those in less-connected fish groups. While aggressiveness must be consistent to be considered a personality trait, our results suggest that both aggressiveness and its consistency are influenced by initial social context.

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Acknowledgments

Benjamin Geffroy’s PhD thesis was funded by the University of Pau and Pays Adour (ED 211). The project was supported by funding from the Office National de l’Eau et des Milieux Aquatiques (ONEMA) and by the Interreg IV B Atlantic area transnational programme (European Regional Development Fund), in the context of the Arc Atlantic Resource Conservation programme (AARC). We wish to thank Emmanuel Huchet for setting up the aquaria. We also thank Martin Walton and Rosie Cox for the English language corrections. We also acknowledge two anonymous reviewers whose commentaries greatly improve quality of the manuscript, as well as Jacques Labonne for his stimulating discussion.

Ethical standards

All works herein comply with current French national laws on the handling of animals and were approved by local ethics committee, research protocol STP-E 0912.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Author notes

  1. Benjamin Geffroy

    Present address: Laboratório de Ecologia de Populações, Universidade Ferderal do Mato Grosso UFMT, Avenida Fernando Corrêa da Costa, 2367 - Bairro Boa Esperança, Cuiabá, MT, Brasil

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRA, UMR 1224 Ecobiop, Pôle d’Hydrobiologie, Quartier Ibarron, 64310, Saint Pée sur Nivelle, France

    Benjamin Geffroy, Cédric Tentelier & Agnès Bardonnet

  2. UPPA, UMR 1224 Ecobiop, UFR des Sciences de la Côte Basque, Allée du parc Montaury, 64600, Anglet, France

    Benjamin Geffroy, Cédric Tentelier & Agnès Bardonnet

  3. Laboratoire de Mathématiques et de leurs Applications de Pau, UMR CNRS 5142, FED 4155 MIRA, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (UPPA), Avenue de l’université, 64000, Pau, France

    Noëlle Bru & Simplice Dossou-Gbété

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  1. Benjamin Geffroy
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Correspondence to Agnès Bardonnet.

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Communicated by D. P. Croft

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Geffroy, B., Bru, N., Dossou-Gbété, S. et al. The link between social network density and rank-order consistency of aggressiveness in juvenile eels. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 68, 1073–1083 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1719-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1719-6

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