Delineation of Violence from Functional Aggression in Mice: An Ethological Approach

Natarajan, Deepa; Vries, Han de; Saaltink, Dirk Jan; Boer, Sietse F. de; Koolhaas, Jaap M.

doi:10.1007/s10519-008-9230-3

Cited by 71 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Previous research on behavioral plasticity has revealed that animals with extreme personalities are less likely to exhibit plasticity while those whose personalities fall in the mid-range exhibit the most plasticity (West-Eberhard, 1989). For instance, among mice, the most aggressive individuals do not adjust their levels of aggression, whereas those who are less aggressive vary their aggression levels depending on the context (Natarajan, de Vries, Saaltink, De Boer, & Koolhaas, 2009). This tendency may explain the variation in personality ratings for these two lions.…”

Section: Rating Methodology and Behavioral Plasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Rating Methodology, Personality Axes, and Behavioral Plasticity: A Case Study in African Lions

Torgerson-White¹,

Bennett²

2014

ABC

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-Animal personality refers to individual differences in behavior that are consistent across time and across contexts. As it plays an ecological and evolutionary role for many animals by affecting fitness, it is likely to play a role in how both species and individuals fare in captivity. Assessment of animal personality by caretaker ratings has been validated using behavioral coding methods in a number of species and has thus become the most common method for assessing personality of captive animals. Whereas the reliability of rating methodology is arguable, the reality of working in a captive setting makes assessment of animal personality by caretaker ratings an easy and practical way to investigate questions related to personality. We used a case study in African lions to investigate the use of rating methodology to uncover personality traits. We then related dimensionality of those traits to fecal glucocorticoid metabolite values taken before, during, and after habitat renovation. The end goal was to devise a method by which individual welfare can be considered and improved by considering personality traits. Interobserver reliability scores revealed that only 11 out of 18 traits and four out of six lions were reliably rated. From those traits, we uncovered a sociability-neuroticism axis, whereby lions that were more social and less neurotic had lower glucocorticoid metabolite levels (GCM). In addition, we found that more vocal animals had higher GCM levels and more active animals had lower GCM levels, findings that suggest that vocalizing and activity level may be part of the way these individuals cope with stressors. These results suggest that a better understanding of a lion's sociability and neuroticism may inform management decisions during stressful times. Further investigation into the two lions who did not pass reliability testing, revealed that they had the lowest number of extreme trait ratings which suggests that they may have been the most behaviorally plastic, a characteristic that was not expressly measured by the surveys. The inability of rating methodology to measure plasticity and the role of the human-animal relationship in contributing to low reliability scores are discussed. We suggest that the most widely used personality surveys may work well for animals who exhibit low levels of plasticity and whose behavior falls closer to the extremes of a continuum, but may be less helpful for more plastic animals whose personality traits fall in the mid-range.

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Section: Rating Methodology and Behavioral Plasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Rating Methodology, Personality Axes, and Behavioral Plasticity: A Case Study in African Lions

Torgerson-White¹,

Bennett²

2014

ABC

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“…Moreover, personality and plasticity are often correlated (e.g. passive mice adjust their levels of aggression according to social context but aggressive mice do not show context-dependent modulation of their behaviour; Natarajan et al, 2009; see Fig. S2C,D).…”

Section: Personality and Plasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Demystifying animal ‘personality’ (or not): why individual variation matters to experimental biologists

Roche

Careau

Binning

2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

152

150

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Animal 'personality', defined as repeatable inter-individual differences in behaviour, is a concept in biology that faces intense controversy. Critics argue that the field is riddled with terminological and methodological inconsistencies and lacks a sound theoretical framework. Nevertheless, experimental biologists are increasingly studying individual differences in physiology and relating these to differences in behaviour, which can lead to fascinating insights. We encourage this trend, and in this Commentary we highlight some of the benefits of estimating variation in (and covariation among) phenotypic traits at the inter-and intra-individual levels. We focus on behaviour while drawing parallels with physiological and performance-related traits. First, we outline some of the confusion surrounding the terminology used to describe repeatable inter-individual differences in behaviour. Second, we argue that acknowledging individual behavioural differences can help researchers avoid sampling and experimental bias, increase explanatory power and, ultimately, understand how selection acts on physiological traits. Third, we summarize the latest methods to collect, analyse and present data on individual trait variation. We note that, while measuring the repeatability of phenotypic traits is informative in its own right, it is only the first step towards understanding how natural selection and genetic architecture shape intra-specific variation in complex, labile traits. Thus, understanding how and why behavioural traits evolve requires linking repeatable inter-individual behavioural differences with core aspects of physiology (e.g. neurophysiology, endocrinology, energy metabolism) and evolutionary biology (e.g. selection gradients, heritability).

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“…A detailed description of these animals and their selection, the resident-intruder paradigm used for this study is available elsewhere [Natarajan et al, 2009]. The opponents used for this study was a docile strain Mas-Gro.…”

Section: Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SAL mice also attack anesthetized opponents in neutral environments [Natarajan et al, 2009]. The SAL mice additionally attack their female cage-mates in particular after cage cleaning or after repeated inter-male interactions in the resident-intruder paradigm [Benus et al, 1990].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Violent phenotype in SAL mice is inflexible and fixed in adulthood

Natarajan¹,

Vries²,

Boer³

et al. 2009

Aggressive Behavior

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Violence was shown to be qualitatively different from functional hyper-aggression in mice selected for high aggression namely Short Attack Latency (SAL), Turku Aggressive (TA) and North Carolina (NC900) strains. This study aimed at investigating whether this adulthood violent phenotype as seen previously in the SAL mice is fixed and hence behaviorally inflexible right from day 1 of the experiment or consequential, i.e., subject to gradual change from functional aggression to violence. The functionally hyper-aggressive strains namely TA and NC900 strains served as controls for the study. Methodologically, behavioral (in)flexibility was studied using the overall sequential structure of agonistic behavior. In particular, intra-individual variations in the overall agonistic behavior as well as offensive, pre-and post-offensive behavior transitions, directly related to the resident-intruder interactions were investigated. The SAL mice showed the least intra-individual variation in their overall sequential agonistic structure as well as a fixed offense-oriented agonistic behavior of highest magnitude when compared with the other strains. Additionally, the pre-and post-offensive transitions were most salient in the functionally hyper-aggressive TA and NC900 strains, whereas virtually absent in the SAL mice. Thus, the violent behavior of the adult SAL mice is behaviorally inflexible or fixed, whereas the functionally hyper-aggressive behavior of the adult TA and NC900 mice is behaviorally flexible and constantly adaptive to the opponent behavior, over 3 days of repeated resident-intruder interaction. Aggr. Behav. 35:430-436, 2009. r

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Delineation of Violence from Functional Aggression in Mice: An Ethological Approach

Cited by 71 publications

References 69 publications

Rating Methodology, Personality Axes, and Behavioral Plasticity: A Case Study in African Lions

Rating Methodology, Personality Axes, and Behavioral Plasticity: A Case Study in African Lions

Demystifying animal ‘personality’ (or not): why individual variation matters to experimental biologists

Violent phenotype in SAL mice is inflexible and fixed in adulthood

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