Taking cues from ecological and evolutionary theories to expand the landscape of disgust.

Behavioural avoidance of parasites in the environment generates what is known as the 'landscape of disgust' (analogous to the predator-induced 'landscape of fear'). Despite the potential for improving our inference of host-parasite dynamics, three limitations of the landscape of disgust restrict the insight that is gained from current research: (i) many host-parasite systems will not be appropriate for invoking the landscape of disgust framework; (ii) existing research has primarily focused on immediate choices made by hosts on small scales, limiting predictive power, generalizability, and the value of the insight obtained; and (iii) relevant ecological and evolutionary theory has yet to be integrated into the framework, challenging our ability to interpret the landscape of disgust within the context of most host-parasite systems. In this review, we explore the specific requirements for implementing a landscape of disgust framework in empirical systems.

Effects of the social environment on movement-integrated habitat selection.

Background: Movement links the distribution of habitats with the social environment of animals using those habitats. Despite the links between movement, habitat selection, and socioecology, their integration remains a challenge due to lack of shared vocabulary across fields, methodological gaps, and the implicit (rather than explicit) historical development of theory in the fields of social and spatial ecology. Given these challenges can be addressed, opportunity for further study will provide insight about the links between social, spatial, and movement ecology.

Friends because of foes: synchronous movement within predator-prey domains.

For prey, movement synchrony represents a potent antipredator strategy. Prey, however, must balance the costs and benefits of using conspecifics to mediate risk. Thus, the emergent patterns of risk-driven sociality depend on variation in space and in the predators and prey themselves.

Expanding theory, methodology and empirical systems at the spatial-social interface.

All animals exhibit some combination of spatial and social behaviours. A diversity of interactions occurs between such behaviours, producing emergent phenomena at . Untangling and interrogating these complex, intertwined processes can be vital for identifying the mechanisms, causes and consequences of behavioural variation in animal ecology.

Faithful pals and familiar locales: differentiating social and spatial site fidelity during reproduction.

Site fidelity-the tendency to reuse familiar spaces-is expected to improve fitness. Familiarity with the local environment is particularly crucial when resource demands or predation risk are high. Consequently, site fidelity often peaks during reproduction when energetic costs are high and offspring are vulnerable.

The biogeochemical boomerang: Site fidelity creates nutritional hotspots that may promote recurrent calving site reuse.

Animals interact with nutrient cycles by consuming and depositing nutrients, interactions studied separately in nutritional ecology and zoogeochemistry. Recent theoretical work bridges these disciplines, highlighting that animal-driven nutrient recycling could be crucial in helping animals meet their nutritional needs. When animals exhibit site fidelity, they consistently deposit nutrients, potentially improving vegetation quality.

The adaptive value of density-dependent habitat specialization and social network centrality.

Density dependence is a fundamental ecological process. In particular, animal habitat selection and social behavior often affect fitness in a density-dependent manner. The Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) and niche variation hypothesis (NVH) present distinct predictions associated with Optimal Foraging Theory about how the effect of habitat selection on fitness varies with population density.

How behavioural ageing affects infectious disease.

Ageing is associated with profound changes in behaviour that could influence exposure and susceptibility to infectious disease. As well as determining emergent patterns of infection across individuals of different ages, behavioural ageing could interact with, confound, or counteract age-related changes in other traits. Here, we examine how behavioural ageing can manifest and influence patterns of infection in wild animals.

Heterothermic Migration Strategies in Flying Vertebrates.

Migration is a widespread and highly variable trait among animals. Population-level patterns arise from individual-level decisions, including physiological and energetic constraints. Many aspects of migration are influenced by behaviors and strategies employed during periods of stopover, where migrants may encounter variable or unpredictable conditions.

Plasticity and repeatability in spring migration and parturition dates with implications for annual reproductive success.

In seasonal environments, animals should be adapted to match important life-history traits to when environmental conditions are optimal. Most animal populations therefore reproduce when resource abundance is highest to increase annual reproductive success. When facing variable, and changing, environments animals can display behavioural plasticity to acclimate to changing conditions.

Behavioural ecology at the spatial-social interface.

Spatial and social behaviour are fundamental aspects of an animal's biology, and their social and spatial environments are indelibly linked through mutual causes and shared consequences. We define the 'spatial-social interface' as intersection of social and spatial aspects of individuals' phenotypes and environments. Behavioural variation at the spatial-social interface has implications for ecological and evolutionary processes including pathogen transmission, population dynamics, and the evolution of social systems.

Density-dependent plasticity in territoriality revealed using social network analysis.

Territories are typically defined as spatially exclusive areas that are defended against conspecifics. Given the spatial nature of territoriality, it is inherently density dependent, but the economics of territoriality also depend on the distribution and abundance of defended resources. Our objectives were to assess the effects of changing population density and food availability on individually based territorial phenotypes.

Bibliometric investigation of the integration of animal personality in conservation contexts.

Consistent individual differences in behavior, commonly termed animal personality, are a widespread phenomenon across taxa that have important consequences for fitness, natural selection, and trophic interactions. Animal personality research may prove useful in several conservation contexts, but which contexts remains to be determined. We conducted a structured literature review of 654 studies identified by combining search terms for animal personality and various conservation subfields.

Social Effects on Annual Fitness in Red Squirrels.

When resources are limited, mean fitness is constrained and competition can cause genes and phenotypes to enhance an individual's own fitness while reducing the fitness of their competitors. Negative social effects on fitness have the potential to constrain adaptation, but the interplay between ecological opportunity and social constraints on adaptation remains poorly studied in nature. Here, we tested for evidence of phenotypic social effects on annual fitness (survival and reproductive success) in a long-term study of wild North American red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) under conditions of both resource limitation and super-abundant food resources.

Erratum: The problem and promise of scale in multilayer animal social networks.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoaa052.].

Influence of number of individuals and observations per individual on a model of community structure.

Social network analysis is increasingly applied to understand animal groups. However, it is rarely feasible to observe every interaction among all individuals in natural populations. Studies have assessed how missing information affects estimates of individual network positions, but less attention has been paid to metrics that characterize overall network structure such as modularity, clustering coefficient, and density.

The problem and promise of scale in multilayer animal social networks.

Scale remains a foundational concept in ecology. Spatial scale, for instance, has become a central consideration in the way we understand landscape ecology and animal space use. Meanwhile, scale-dependent social processes can range from fine-scale interactions to co-occurrence and overlapping home ranges.

Personality affects dynamics of an experimental pathogen in little brown bats.

Host behaviour can affect host-pathogen dynamics and theory predicts that certain individuals disproportionately infect conspecifics during an epidemic. Consistent individual differences in behaviour, or personality, could influence this variation with the most exploratory or sociable individuals most likely to spread pathogens. We quantified exploration and sociability in little brown bats () and then experimentally manipulated exposure to a proxy pathogen (i.

Geometry of the ideal free distribution: individual behavioural variation and annual reproductive success in aggregations of a social ungulate.

Variation in social environment can mitigate risks and rewards associated with occupying a particular patch. We aim to integrate Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) and Geometry of the Selfish Herd (GSH) to address an apparent conflict in their predictions of equal mean fitness between patches (IFD) and declining fitness benefits within a patch (GSH). We tested these hypotheses in a socio-spatial context using individual caribou that were aggregated or disaggregated during calving and varied in their annual reproductive success (ARS).

The Ecology of Individual Differences Empirically Applied to Space-Use and Movement Tactics.

Movement provides a link between individual behavioral ecology and the spatial and temporal variation in an individual's landscape. Individual variation in movement traits is an important axis of animal personality, particularly in the context of foraging ecology. We tested whether individual caribou () displayed plasticity in movement and space-use behavior across a gradient of resource aggregation.

Testing the "Fasting While Foraging" Hypothesis: Effects of Recent Feeding on Plasma Metabolite Concentrations in Little Brown Bats ().

Plasma metabolite concentrations can be used to understand nutritional status and foraging behavior across ecological contexts including prehibernation fattening, migration refueling, and variation in foraging habitat quality. Generally, high plasma concentrations of the ketone β-hydroxybutyrate, a product of fat catabolism, indicate fasting, while triglycerides indicate recent feeding and fat accumulation. In recent studies of insectivorous bats, triglyceride concentration increased after feeding as expected, but β-hydroxybutyrate also unexpectedly increased rather than decreased.

Space use and social association in a gregarious ungulate: Testing the conspecific attraction and resource dispersion hypotheses.

Animals use a variety of proximate cues to assess habitat quality when resources vary spatiotemporally. Two nonmutually exclusive strategies to assess habitat quality involve either direct assessment of landscape features or observation of social cues from conspecifics as a form of information transfer about forage resources. The conspecific attraction hypothesis proposes that individual space use is dependent on the distribution of conspecifics rather than the location of resource patches, whereas the resource dispersion hypothesis proposes that individual space use and social association are driven by the abundance and distribution of resources.

An experimental test of effects of ambient temperature and roost quality on aggregation by little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus).

Environmental factors, such as ambient temperature (T) or roost/nest quality, can influence social behaviour of small-bodied endotherms because individuals may aggregate for social thermoregulation when T is low or select the warmest possible sites for roosting. Female temperate bats form maternity colonies in spring to communally raise pups and exploit social thermoregulation. They also select roosts with warm microclimates because low roost temperature (T) delays juvenile development.