Few personality studies of zebra finches have taken into account the importance of the social environment of this highly social species, which is important as it may influence how personality is formed and maintained. Moreover, no work has yet studied zebra finch personality in the wild, to examine the role of fitness. I addressed these questions by first examining the relationship between sociality and well-established personality traits in captivity, such as exploratory behaviour and activity, along with examining the effects of personality on fitness in a captive aviary population. Secondly, I studies personality in the wild zebra finch for the first time.
Table of Contents
Chapter One. General introduction -- Chapter Two. The social life of the zebra finch in the wild -- Chapter Three. Active but antisocial : exploration and activity is linked to social behaviour in a colonially breeding finch -- Chapter Four. Nestling activity levels during begging behaviour predict activity levels in adulthood -- Chapter Five. Personality in captivity : more exploratory males reproduce better -- Chapter Six. Personality in the wild zebra finch : exploration, sociality and reproduction -- Chapter Seven. General discussion.Notes
Includes bibliographical references
Thesis by publication.Awarding Institution
Macquarie UniversityDegree Type
Thesis PhDDegree
PhD, Macquarie University, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Department of Biological SciencesDepartment, Centre or School
Department of Biological SciencesYear of Award
2014Principal Supervisor
Simon GriffithAdditional Supervisor 1
Martin WhitingAdditional Supervisor 2
Mylene M. MarietteRights
Copyright Luke S.C. McCowan 2014.
Copyright disclaimer: http://mq.edu.au/library/copyrightLanguage
EnglishJurisdiction
AustraliaExtent
1 online resource (x, 213 pages colour illustrations)Former Identifiers
mq:71414
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/1274107