Isolation rearing does not constrain social plasticity in a family-living lizard

An animal’s social environment can be both dynamic and complex. Thus, social species often garner fitness benefits through being plastic in their social behavior. Yet, social plasticity can be constrained by an individual’s experience. We examined the influence of early social environment on social behavior in the tree skink (Egernia striolata), a family-living lizard. In the first phase of this study, we reared juveniles in two different social environments for 1.5 years: either in isolation or in unrelated pairs. We quantified each lizard’s sociability at four-month intervals using a standardized laboratory assay, and found that isolated lizards were more sociable, spending the assay closer to an adult female, than socially-reared lizards. In the second phase of this study (at the end of 1.5 years), we released all lizards into a semi-natural environment, observed their associations, and used social network analysis to quantify social behavior. During the initial six weeks post-releas...

动物的社会环境兼具动态性与复杂性。因此，群居物种通常通过社会行为的可塑性获得适合度优势。然而，社会可塑性会受到个体经验的制约。我们探究了早期社会环境对树石龙子（Egernia striolata，一种营家庭生活的蜥蜴）社会行为的影响。在研究的第一阶段，我们将幼体置于两种不同的社会环境中饲养1.5年：单独饲养或与无亲缘关系的个体配对饲养。我们采用标准化实验室测定法，每四个月量化一次蜥蜴的社交性，发现单独饲养的蜥蜴比群居饲养的蜥蜴社交性更强——在测定过程中它们更靠近成年雌性。在研究的第二阶段（1.5年结束时），我们将所有蜥蜴释放到半自然环境中，观察它们的互动关联，并采用社会网络分析（social network analysis）量化其社会行为。释放后的最初六周内……