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Personalities as epigenetic suites of traits : a study on a passerine bird

(2003) Carere, Claudio

Over the past decade there is a growing awareness that differences between individuals do not just reflect random noise, but may reveal important biological information. Individuals of the same species differ consistently in behaviour across time and situation, and the nature, development, function and evolution of such differences are only recently being studied. The concepts of coping strategy and animal personality are cliscussed, together with those of heritability, gene-environment inreractions (epigenesis) and maternal effects, in the light of the claim that personality differences are strongly determined by genetic information. This thesis aimed at understanding the nature and development of the differences between personalities in a wild avian species. To pursue this goal, I exploited two lines of great tits (a common songbird, Parus major) bidirectionally selected for early exploratory behaviour (FAST and SLOW lines) and thought to reflect different personalities. Their behaviour and physiology was analysed from early ontogeny into adulthood under normal and challenging condition

	titlepages/contents
	chapter 1
	chapter 2
	chapter 3
	chapter 4
	chapter 5
	chapter 6
	chapter 7
	chapter 8
	chapter 9
	chapter 10
	acknowledgements
	list of publications
	references
	samenvatting
	sintesi
	synthesis
	thesis