Meeting Abstract

85.2  Friday, Jan. 7  The relationship between behavioral syndromes and behavioral plasticity in male song sparrows SEWALL, Kendra B.*; NOWICKI, Stephen; Duke University; Duke University k.sewall@duke.edu

Male songbirds can face a trade-off between providing parental care and seeking additional mates. Individuals may resolve this trade-off differently, with the possibility of there being equally adaptive paternal and aggressive male behavioral phenotypes in a population. Even in the absence of distinct phenotypes, male songbirds vary in their investment in mating and territorial defense, as seen for example in persistent individual differences in levels of aggressive behaviors. Persistent differences in aggression are likely one component of correlated suites of behaviors, referred to as behavioral syndromes. Though behavioral syndromes are generally described by individuals’ average responses to a wide range of environmental and social stimuli, individuals with different syndromes may also vary in the degree of behavioral plasticity that they show in response to changing conditions. To test this hypothesis, we described the behavioral syndromes of free-living male song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) using simulated territory intrusions and subsequent captive tests of neophobia. We then tested subjects’ performance in a test of inhibitory control, a trait related to behavioral flexibility. Finally, we examined subjects’ behavioral plasticity in a social context by measuring their response to playback of local and foreign songs, representing high and low levels of perceived social threat. We found positive relationships between measures of neophobia and inhibitory control, suggesting that behavioral plasticity could vary with at least some traits that comprise behavioral syndromes.