Exploration of personality types in the Olrog's Gull (Larus atlanticus)

ZUMPANO, FRANCISCO; GARCÍA, GERMÁN OSCAR; NICOLLI, ANABELA; CASTANO, MELINA; BIONDI, LAURA MARINA

Puerto Iguazú

Congreso; Ornithological Congress of the Americas; 2017

Aves Argentinas, Sociedade Brasileira de Ornitologia, Association of Field Ornithologist

The term personality refers to behavioral, emotional and physiological differences between individuals of the same species or population in a set of correlated characteristics. This work explores the personality types of threatened Larid, the Olrog´s Gull. Each captured individual (n=29) was characterized in terms of sex, age, aggressiveness, struggle, tonic immobility and respiratory rate. We applied multivariate analysis (PCA) and them general linear models to analyze the effect of sex and age on the main component 1 (CP1) and 2 (CP2). The variables that weighed most on CP1 were tonic immobility and respiratory rate (explained variance: 43%) and on CP2 aggressiveness and the struggle index (explained variance: 27%). Our results do not indicate a significant effect of sex or age on CP1. The CP2 was affected by the age of the individuals (t JU vs. A=-2.66, P < 0.05; t SA vs. A = -1.89, P= 0.06; t JU vs. SA = 0.37, P > 0.05). When testing the age nested in sex it was observed that the differences in CP2 are mainly given by adult females, which presented higher values of CP2 than the rest of the age classes, indicating more aggressiveness and struggle than the rest of the individuals. This study discusses the importance of the determination of behavioral syndromes in a species threatened and impacted by anthropogenic activities