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Social influence on the correlation between behaviours in young-of-the-year perch

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Abstract

The connection between risk-taking behaviour and exploratory behaviour in young-of-the-year perch (Perca fluviatilis) was studied in aquarium experiments to see whether individual behaviour patterns could be identified in this species and also to investigate how individual behaviour is influenced by their social environment. Risk-taking was defined as the time spent foraging in an open area vs hiding in the vegetation in the presence of a piscivore. Explorative behaviour was measured as latency to enter a passage leading to an unknown area. Groups of four fish were used for the observations, and both behaviours measured were positively correlated with the mean scores of these behaviours in the other group members. Risk-taking and explorative behaviours were correlated only when data was adjusted for the behaviour of the other group members. Individuals that spent more time in the open than their companions also tended to be faster than the others to enter the passage to the unknown area and vice versa. The results indicate that there are consistent individual differences in boldness in perch, but also that behaviour could be modified according to the behaviour of group members.

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Acknowledgements

The experiments in this study comply with the current laws of Sweden and were approved by the local ethics committee of the Swedish National Board for Laboratory Animals (CFN). The study was financially supported by C.F. Lundströms Foundation. Hans Rönnholm was a resourceful help during fish collection and experiment set-up. Two anonymous referees provided useful comments for the improvement of the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Aquaculture, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-901 83, Umeå, Sweden

    Carin Magnhagen

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  1. Carin Magnhagen
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Correspondence to Carin Magnhagen.

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Communicated by J. Krause

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Magnhagen, C. Social influence on the correlation between behaviours in young-of-the-year perch. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 61, 525–531 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-006-0280-3

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