Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123388
Brendan J. Barrett , Wolfgang Fiedler , Francesca Frisoni , Zoë Goldsborough , Inge Müller , Kamran Safi , Martin Wikelski , Daniel Zuñiga
Driven by technological advancement and low cost, biologging has rapidly transformed the study of animal behaviour and ecology, providing unprecedented insights into wildlife and aiding conservation efforts and ecological research. However, despite its development, biologging still faces ethical and methodological challenges, including the lack of error reporting, inconsistent standards and insufficient consideration of animal welfare. In this study, the importance of a robust error culture in biologging to address these issues was highlighted. In addition, four key directions for action were proposed: (1) establishing a biologging expert registry to enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing, (2) implementing preregistration and postreporting of studies and devices to reduce publication bias and improve transparency, (3) demanding industry standards for biologging devices to ensure reliability and minimize harm and (4) developing educational programmes and ethical guidelines tailored to the unique challenges of biologging research. By continuously implementing the 5R principle (replace, reduce, refine, responsibility and reuse), the biologging community can balance technological progress with ethical responsibility. These measures aim to improve research quality, safeguard animal welfare and foster a sustainable future for this critical field.
{"title":"Burden of a failed error culture in biologging","authors":"Brendan J. Barrett , Wolfgang Fiedler , Francesca Frisoni , Zoë Goldsborough , Inge Müller , Kamran Safi , Martin Wikelski , Daniel Zuñiga","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123388","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123388","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Driven by technological advancement and low cost, biologging has rapidly transformed the study of animal behaviour and ecology, providing unprecedented insights into wildlife and aiding conservation efforts and ecological research. However, despite its development, biologging still faces ethical and methodological challenges, including the lack of error reporting, inconsistent standards and insufficient consideration of animal welfare. In this study, the importance of a robust error culture in biologging to address these issues was highlighted. In addition, four key directions for action were proposed: (1) establishing a biologging expert registry to enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing, (2) implementing preregistration and postreporting of studies and devices to reduce publication bias and improve transparency, (3) demanding industry standards for biologging devices to ensure reliability and minimize harm and (4) developing educational programmes and ethical guidelines tailored to the unique challenges of biologging research. By continuously implementing the 5R principle (replace, reduce, refine, responsibility and reuse), the biologging community can balance technological progress with ethical responsibility. These measures aim to improve research quality, safeguard animal welfare and foster a sustainable future for this critical field.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"230 ","pages":"Article 123388"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145684689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123364
Josefine Bohr Brask , Matthew Silk , Michael N. Weiss
Social networks constitute an important approach in the study of animal social behaviour. So far, the main focus has been on statistical analysis of animal social network structures. However, social networks can also be studied by using generative network models, which are procedures that create simulated network structures. These models play a key role in wider network science, but while they have been used in the animal behaviour field, they have not yet been as well integrated as other approaches. We believe that generative network models have considerable unexploited potential as a tool for understanding animal social systems. Here: (1) we provide a general introduction to generative network models, including a description of questions they are used for investigating in wider network science, an explanation of key model features and an overview of common models; (2) we consider generative network models in relation to the study of animal social behaviour, including a description of questions about animal social systems they can be used to investigate (demonstrated by case studies), an overview of animal behaviour studies that have used generative network modelling, consideration of the relevance of the key model features for animal behaviour studies and guidance on how to choose suitable generative network models for studies of animal social systems. We hope that this can help to further integrate generative network models into the study of animal sociality.
{"title":"An introduction to generative network models and their use in animal sociality research","authors":"Josefine Bohr Brask , Matthew Silk , Michael N. Weiss","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123364","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123364","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social networks constitute an important approach in the study of animal social behaviour. So far, the main focus has been on statistical analysis of animal social network structures. However, social networks can also be studied by using generative network models, which are procedures that create simulated network structures. These models play a key role in wider network science, but while they have been used in the animal behaviour field, they have not yet been as well integrated as other approaches. We believe that generative network models have considerable unexploited potential as a tool for understanding animal social systems. Here: (1) we provide a general introduction to generative network models, including a description of questions they are used for investigating in wider network science, an explanation of key model features and an overview of common models; (2) we consider generative network models in relation to the study of animal social behaviour, including a description of questions about animal social systems they can be used to investigate (demonstrated by case studies), an overview of animal behaviour studies that have used generative network modelling, consideration of the relevance of the key model features for animal behaviour studies and guidance on how to choose suitable generative network models for studies of animal social systems. We hope that this can help to further integrate generative network models into the study of animal sociality.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"230 ","pages":"Article 123364"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145684688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123346
{"title":"Animal Behaviour Best Paper Prizes 2025","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123346","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123346","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"230 ","pages":"Article 123346"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145684833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123365
Wes Walsh , Alex M. Winsor , Elizabeth M. Jakob
Light from human-modified landscapes (artificial light at night, or ALAN) can disrupt feeding, rest, reproduction and orientation in many animals. It is considered a contributor to global insect declines, and studies have found that up to one-third of insects attracted to stationary light sources die from exhaustion or predation by sunrise. Many insectivorous vertebrates hunt near artificial light to catch more prey, but few studies have examined whether invertebrate predators similarly exploit artificial light. Here we test how artificial light and prey affect web placement in the grass spider Agelenopsis pennsylvanica (Araneae, Agelenidae). We kept spiders in enclosures that had transparent sides, with a light source outside one corner. In the first experiment, lights either stayed on (light treatment) or off (control) all night, and we compared web placement between groups. Next, we conducted a cue conflict experiment, with light in one corner and prey in a separate unlit corner, and compared web placement between the light and control groups. In the absence of prey, control spider web placement was random while light treatment spiders were more likely to build webs in the lit corner and made their webs significantly closer to the light source. When prey was present, control treatment spiders were more likely to build webs near the prey, while light treatment spiders were still more likely to build webs in the light, and their webs were significantly closer to the light and farther from the prey compared to control spiders. Outdoors, this likely draws them to prey-dense, artificially lit areas. Recent reports, however, suggest that urban insects are evolving reduced flight-to-light behaviour. If spiders continue to prioritize light over prey, artificial light could therefore become an ecological trap for spiders if fewer insects approach the light. This work highlights the complex ways in which human activity may affect communities across temporal scales.
{"title":"Web placement in grass spiders (Agelenopsis pennsylvanica) is driven more by artificial light at night than by prey","authors":"Wes Walsh , Alex M. Winsor , Elizabeth M. Jakob","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123365","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123365","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Light from human-modified landscapes (artificial light at night, or ALAN) can disrupt feeding, rest, reproduction and orientation in many animals. It is considered a contributor to global insect declines, and studies have found that up to one-third of insects attracted to stationary light sources die from exhaustion or predation by sunrise. Many insectivorous vertebrates hunt near artificial light to catch more prey, but few studies have examined whether invertebrate predators similarly exploit artificial light. Here we test how artificial light and prey affect web placement in the grass spider <em>Agelenopsis pennsylvanica</em> (Araneae, Agelenidae). We kept spiders in enclosures that had transparent sides, with a light source outside one corner. In the first experiment, lights either stayed on (light treatment) or off (control) all night, and we compared web placement between groups. Next, we conducted a cue conflict experiment, with light in one corner and prey in a separate unlit corner, and compared web placement between the light and control groups. In the absence of prey, control spider web placement was random while light treatment spiders were more likely to build webs in the lit corner and made their webs significantly closer to the light source. When prey was present, control treatment spiders were more likely to build webs near the prey, while light treatment spiders were still more likely to build webs in the light, and their webs were significantly closer to the light and farther from the prey compared to control spiders. Outdoors, this likely draws them to prey-dense, artificially lit areas. Recent reports, however, suggest that urban insects are evolving reduced flight-to-light behaviour. If spiders continue to prioritize light over prey, artificial light could therefore become an ecological trap for spiders if fewer insects approach the light. This work highlights the complex ways in which human activity may affect communities across temporal scales.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"230 ","pages":"Article 123365"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145684692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123374
Inès Khazar , Nicolas Morellet , A.J. Mark Hewison , Laura Gervais , Hélène Verheyden , Guillaume Le Loc'h , Arnaud Bonnet , Nicolas Cèbe , Yannick Chaval , Anne Geffré , Bruno Lourtet , Joël Merlet , Nadège C. Bonnot
When faced with stressful situations, individuals differ in their behavioural and physiological responses depending on their behavioural type; that is, personality. For mobile organisms, movement is one of the primary responses to threats. Movement syndromes (i.e. suites of correlated movement traits) have been linked to individual differences in risk taking, resource acquisition and performance, and can influence the evolutionary trajectory of these behaviours. Often, standardized tests are used to identify behavioural types; however, behaviours evaluated in controlled settings might not accurately reflect behaviours expressed while free-ranging in the wild. Nonetheless, the acute stress response of an individual expressed during a test could be related to a stress-mitigating behaviour in natural conditions, such as movement. To address this question, we used a long-term monitored population of wild roe deer, Capreolus capreolus, to identify movement-related personality traits and investigate the existence of a movement syndrome. We then examined its link with among-individual differences in the acute stress response (rectal temperature, haematocrit, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and docility) expressed during capture and handling. Using GPS monitoring of up to 335 roe deer in a highly heterogenous landscape, we showed that risk-prone individuals (i.e. using riskier habitat and ranging closer to roads during daytime) were also more active, with a lower movement speed and larger home ranges. However, we only found weak support for a link at the among-individual level between an individual's movement syndrome and its stress response during controlled capture, although there was some indication that individuals with an attenuated physiological response to acute stress tended to take more risk when free-ranging. This lack of support might be explained by the fact that different traits reflect different dimensions of the stress response, or by the low number of replicates per individual for these traits. These findings highlight the complexity of interpreting stress responses in natural populations.
{"title":"Is there a link between the acute stress response and the movement syndrome of a wild large herbivore?","authors":"Inès Khazar , Nicolas Morellet , A.J. Mark Hewison , Laura Gervais , Hélène Verheyden , Guillaume Le Loc'h , Arnaud Bonnet , Nicolas Cèbe , Yannick Chaval , Anne Geffré , Bruno Lourtet , Joël Merlet , Nadège C. Bonnot","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123374","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123374","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>When faced with stressful situations, individuals differ in their behavioural and physiological responses depending on their behavioural type; that is, personality. For mobile organisms, movement is one of the primary responses to threats. Movement syndromes (i.e. suites of correlated movement traits) have been linked to individual differences in risk taking, resource acquisition and performance, and can influence the evolutionary trajectory of these behaviours. Often, standardized tests are used to identify behavioural types; however, behaviours evaluated in controlled settings might not accurately reflect behaviours expressed while free-ranging in the wild. Nonetheless, the acute stress response of an individual expressed during a test could be related to a stress-mitigating behaviour in natural conditions, such as movement. To address this question, we used a long-term monitored population of wild roe deer, <em>Capreolus capreolus</em>, to identify movement-related personality traits and investigate the existence of a movement syndrome. We then examined its link with among-individual differences in the acute stress response (rectal temperature, haematocrit, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and docility) expressed during capture and handling. Using GPS monitoring of up to 335 roe deer in a highly heterogenous landscape, we showed that risk-prone individuals (i.e. using riskier habitat and ranging closer to roads during daytime) were also more active, with a lower movement speed and larger home ranges. However, we only found weak support for a link at the among-individual level between an individual's movement syndrome and its stress response during controlled capture, although there was some indication that individuals with an attenuated physiological response to acute stress tended to take more risk when free-ranging. This lack of support might be explained by the fact that different traits reflect different dimensions of the stress response, or by the low number of replicates per individual for these traits. These findings highlight the complexity of interpreting stress responses in natural populations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"230 ","pages":"Article 123374"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145684686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123375
The Animal Behaviour Editors
{"title":"Correction to “Too hot or too disturbed? Temperatures more than hikers affect circadian activity of females in northern chamois” [Animal Behaviour 210 (2024) 347–367]","authors":"The Animal Behaviour Editors","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123375","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123375","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"230 ","pages":"Article 123375"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145684820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-30DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123413
Aoife O'Brien , Anke J. Posma , Olivia-Sofie Basse Schougaard , Marta Contreras-Serrano , Caio A. Leal-Dutra , Benjamin H. Conlon , Jonathan Z. Shik
The optimized nutrient exchange between partnered species can govern the stability of mutualisms; however, the underlying regulatory mechanisms are often poorly understood. In this study, these mechanisms were explored in obligate mutualisms between leafcutter ants, Atta and Acromyrmex, and the fungus, Leucoagaricus gongylophorus, they provision with plant fragments. The fungus concentrates nutrients inside swollen hyphal cells called gongylidia, which are consumed by ants. Compared with the well-studied mechanisms of resilient cultivar production by ants, little is known about whether and how the fungal cultivar regulates stable nutritional yield. Here, we initially isolated the fungus from ant farmers and then showed that gongylidia had variable levels of carbon storage glycogen when cultured in vitro on different carbon sources. Next, we tested whether leafcutter ants regulate their cultivar's nutritional yield when actively farming their crop. Results showed that fungal glycogen remained stable but with a low total glycogen yield when farmed by lab-maintained leafcutter colonies confined to a nutritionally imbalanced forage material. In addition, similar fungal glycogen stability with a low total yield was observed across three leafcutter species with different farming systems when foraging for plant materials containing diverse carbohydrates. Although the cultivar's nutritional yield can vary with provisioned nutrients, ant farmers thus appear to suppress this variation through their farming behaviours. Conducting further experiments is recommended to explore the mechanisms by which symbiotic nutrient exchange can be fine-tuned by the ants in response to the specific nutritional needs of the colony and the mechanisms by which the fungus crop signals its nutritional needs to ant farmers.
{"title":"Stable nutritional provisioning emerges from interactions between leafcutter ants and their mutualistic fungal cultivar","authors":"Aoife O'Brien , Anke J. Posma , Olivia-Sofie Basse Schougaard , Marta Contreras-Serrano , Caio A. Leal-Dutra , Benjamin H. Conlon , Jonathan Z. Shik","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123413","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123413","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The optimized nutrient exchange between partnered species can govern the stability of mutualisms; however, the underlying regulatory mechanisms are often poorly understood. In this study, these mechanisms were explored in obligate mutualisms between leafcutter ants, <em>Atta</em> and <em>Acromyrmex</em>, and the fungus, <em>Leucoagaricus gongylophorus</em>, they provision with plant fragments. The fungus concentrates nutrients inside swollen hyphal cells called gongylidia, which are consumed by ants. Compared with the well-studied mechanisms of resilient cultivar production by ants, little is known about whether and how the fungal cultivar regulates stable nutritional yield. Here, we initially isolated the fungus from ant farmers and then showed that gongylidia had variable levels of carbon storage glycogen when cultured in vitro on different carbon sources. Next, we tested whether leafcutter ants regulate their cultivar's nutritional yield when actively farming their crop. Results showed that fungal glycogen remained stable but with a low total glycogen yield when farmed by lab-maintained leafcutter colonies confined to a nutritionally imbalanced forage material. In addition, similar fungal glycogen stability with a low total yield was observed across three leafcutter species with different farming systems when foraging for plant materials containing diverse carbohydrates. Although the cultivar's nutritional yield can vary with provisioned nutrients, ant farmers thus appear to suppress this variation through their farming behaviours. Conducting further experiments is recommended to explore the mechanisms by which symbiotic nutrient exchange can be fine-tuned by the ants in response to the specific nutritional needs of the colony and the mechanisms by which the fungus crop signals its nutritional needs to ant farmers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"231 ","pages":"Article 123413"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145694128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-29DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123391
Craig Packer
Lion prides consist of related females, their offspring and a coalition of adult males that has entered from elsewhere. Female matrilines usually persist for generations whereas coalitions only persist for a single generation. Female territoriality focuses on key landscape features that enhance access to prey, water and denning sites, while male defence of that space is primarily driven by maintaining exclusive access to those females. Both sexes show fission–fusion grouping patterns but remain in contact with each other by long-distance vocalizations. Female sociality in lions derives from their relatively high population abundance combined with the heterogeneity of savannah habitat compared to the lower population abundance and homogeneous forested habitat found in other large felids. Male lions form coalitions because of the synchronous breeding of females that results from the infanticidal behaviour of incoming coalitions.
{"title":"Female matrilines and male partnerships: long-term social dynamics of African lions","authors":"Craig Packer","doi":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123391","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123391","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Lion prides consist of related females, their offspring and a coalition of adult males that has entered from elsewhere. Female matrilines usually persist for generations whereas coalitions only persist for a single generation. Female territoriality focuses on key landscape features that enhance access to prey, water and denning sites, while male defence of that space is primarily driven by maintaining exclusive access to those females. Both sexes show fission–fusion grouping patterns but remain in contact with each other by long-distance vocalizations. Female sociality in lions derives from their relatively high population abundance combined with the heterogeneity of savannah habitat compared to the lower population abundance and homogeneous forested habitat found in other large felids. Male lions form coalitions because of the synchronous breeding of females that results from the infanticidal behaviour of incoming coalitions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50788,"journal":{"name":"Animal Behaviour","volume":"231 ","pages":"Article 123391"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145694122","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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