Repeatable and heritable behavioural variation in a wild cooperative breeder

Hannah A. Edwards, Terry Burke and Hannah L. Dugdale

Behavioral Ecology, 2017, vol. 28, issue 3, 668-676

Abstract: Lay Summary To evolve and respond to natural selection behavioural traits must have a genetic component. Quantifying the genetic component of behaviour can thus reveal its evolutionary significance. In a cooperative breeder, we tested if behavioural traits were consistent, heritable and correlated. We found that our measures of exploratory behaviour were consistent and correlated, and that novel environment exploration, was heritable. This behaviour therefore has the greatest capacity to evolve in response to a changing environment.

Keywords: Cooperative breeding; exploration; personality; heritability; repeatability; Seychelles warbler (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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