Personality traits in geese linked to love match and reproductive success

Birds of a feather flock together but strong pairing in geese has been shown to produce better breeding results, according to a new study.

Focusing on a group of captive greylag geese, bird behaviour experts from the University of Vienna and Flinders University have looked into the parental benefits of ‘made in heaven’ matches between well-paired couples.

“Like in humans, the personality of both parents and their similarity in personality traits can influence their success as parents,” says Lauren Common, a Flinders University PhD candidate now based at the Konrad Lorenz Research Centre for Behaviour and Cognition, University of Vienna in Austria.

“Successful pair bonds where partners were similar in their boldness, mainly by responding to risky situations in the same way, can have higher hatching success.

“This bold parenting style can lead to consistency and responsiveness, which can result in successful reproductive output and survival of young and fledgeling success.”

In the new article published in the journal Animal Behaviour, researchers studied a flock of more than 100 habituated greylag geese over three breeding seasons, and reproductive and fledgling success was measured.

University of Vienna Professor Sonia Kleindorfer, who founded the BirdLab at the College of Science and Engineering at Flinders University, says the coordination of a united male and female couple is crucial during incubation when thermal stability and protection from predators is crucial.

“In species with biparental care and monogamy, reproductive output and success may be influenced not only by the personality of each individual but also the behavioural compatibility of the pair.

“This kind of pairing in greylag geese is linked to their well-developed cognitive capacity and social awareness and individuals consistently differ in personality traits such as boldness, aggressiveness, sociability and other behavioural traits.”

Professor Kleindorfer says “animal personality was once considered a figment of human imagination and, worse, anthropomorphism”.

“This study adds to a growing body of work showing that animals such as greylag geese have consistent individual differences in behaviour, also called personality,” she says.

“But more than that, personality traits in animals can be linked to successful love matches and reproductive success. Therefore, these traits may be targets of natural and sexual selection.”

The article, Effects of assortative mating for personality on reproductive success in Anser anser (2024) by Lauren K Common, Andrew C Katsis, Didone Frigerio and Sonia Kleindorfer has been published in Animal Behaviour DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.08.004.

 Acknowledgements: This project was supported by the University of Vienna and the Konrad Lorenz Research Centre and Cumberland Foundation.