Data from: 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-release, we detected no differences in social behavior between rearing treatments. However, during the following six months differences emerged. Isolated lizards were more homogeneous in the strength of their associations than socially-reared lizards. Also, at first, isolated lizards associated more strongly than socially-reared lizards. Over time, isolated lizard associations became weaker and involved fewer lizards. In contrast, the level and number of associations of socially-reared lizards were stable over time. Our findings suggest that early experience influences tree skink social behavior but does not constrain social plasticity: isolation rearing did not limit their ability to respond to a novel social environment.

Usage Notes
Data files (5) for Tree Skink social behaviour & attributesPlease note this data, as well as the accompanying R code, can also be found within a public Bitbucket (git) repository at this link: https://[e-mail]/julia_riley/e.-striolata-social-behavior-study.git

The following files are provided in the compressed folder:
1. Group Data_long.csv - contains data on social association over our six month observations,

2. Group Data_short.csv - contains data on social association over our six week observations,

3. Lizard_Attributes_long.csv - contains lizard attribute data for the six month observations (N = 27 lizards),

4. Lizard_Attributes_short.csv - contains lizard attribute data for the six week observations (N = 28 lizards), &

5. personality_data_NArm.csv - contains laboratory sociability data for analyses.social interaction data.zip

动物的社会环境兼具动态性与复杂性。因此，群居物种往往可通过社会行为的可塑性获得适合度收益。然而，社会可塑性会受到个体过往经历的制约。本研究以家族群居的木纹石龙子（Egernia striolata）为研究对象，探究早期社会环境对其社会行为的影响。

本研究第一阶段中，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，或与非亲缘个体配对饲养。我们采用标准化实验室测试方法，每4个月对每只蜥蜴的社交性进行量化分析，结果发现，相较于群居饲养的个体，单独饲养的蜥蜴社交性更强，在测试中会更贴近成年雌性个体。

本研究第二阶段（饲养1.5年结束时），我们将所有蜥蜴放归至半自然环境中，观察它们的社交关联，并通过社交网络分析量化其社会行为。放归后的初始六周内，我们未检测到不同饲养处理组间的社会行为差异。但在后续六个月中，差异逐渐显现：单独饲养组蜥蜴的社交关联强度均一性高于群居饲养组；且起初单独饲养组的社交关联强度亦强于群居饲养组。随着时间推移，单独饲养组蜥蜴的社交关联强度逐渐减弱，关联个体数量也随之减少。与之相反，群居饲养组蜥蜴的社交关联强度与关联个体数量均随时间保持稳定。本研究结果表明，早期经历会影响木纹石龙子的社会行为，但并未限制其社会可塑性：单独饲养并未阻碍它们对全新社会环境作出响应的能力。

使用说明
本数据集包含5份与木纹石龙子社会行为及个体属性相关的文件，均收录于social interaction data.zip压缩包中。请注意，本数据及配套的R代码可通过以下链接获取至公共Bitbucket（git）仓库：https://[e-mail]/julia_riley/e.-striolata-social-behavior-study.git

压缩包内提供以下文件：
1. Group Data_long.csv：包含为期六个月观测期内的社会关联数据；
2. Group Data_short.csv：包含为期六周观测期内的社会关联数据；
3. Lizard_Attributes_long.csv：包含为期六个月观测期的蜥蜴个体属性数据（样本量N=27只蜥蜴）；
4. Lizard_Attributes_short.csv：包含为期六周观测期的蜥蜴个体属性数据（样本量N=28只蜥蜴）；
5. personality_data_NArm.csv：包含用于分析的实验室社交性数据。