Neophobia across social contexts in juvenile herring gulls

Abstract

Neophobia, the fear or avoidance of the unfamiliar, can have significant fitness consequences. It is typically assessed by exposing individuals to unfamiliar objects when they are alone, but in social species, the presence of conspecifics can influence neophobia. However, previous research on the effect of group dynamics on neophobic responses has produced mixed results. Here, we explored the degree of neophobia of an individual in different social contexts in a highly social species, the herring gull. To this end, we exposed juvenile herring gulls (n = 54) to novel objects in both individual and group settings (4-5 individuals), replicating each condition twice. Individuals tested in groups were quicker to eat and spent more time near a novel object than individuals tested alone. The results of our study suggest that the presence of group members reduces perceived individual risk, allowing individuals to behave less cautiously. Preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/u4b7q (date of in-principle acceptance: 17 May 2024).

Keywords: animal behaviour; animal personality; behavioural inhibition; herring gull; neophobia; social behaviour.

Figure 1.

Overview of hypotheses.

Figure 2.

Novel or control objects.

Figure 3.

Test setup in home enclosure.

Figure 4.

Difference plots of raw values illustrating changes in neophobic response from individual to group contexts for each dependent variable (i.e. latency to enter, latency to eat, ZOI duration). Black lines show the average response whereas dotted lines show the individual responses to illustrate the variance. In particular, plot A (latency to enter) shows a reduced variance but not a reduced average in neophobic responses across social contexts. Note that individual variation is partly masked, as lines are plotted on top of each other. Plot B (latency to eat) illustrates a reduced average neophobic response across social contexts, whereas we could not test for a reduction of variance. Plot C (ZOI duration) indicates a reduced average and a reduced variance in neophobic responses across social contexts.