Abstract
In nature, many animals build structures that can be readily measured at the scale of their gross morphology (e.g. length, volume and weight). Capturing individuality as can be done with the structures designed and built by human architects or artists, however, is more challenging. Here, we tested whether computer-aided image texture classification approaches can be used to describe textural variation in the nests of weaverbirds (Ploceus species) in order to attribute nests to the individual weaverbird that built them. We found that a computer-aided texture analysis approach does allow the assignment of a signature to weaverbirds' nests. We suggest that this approach will be a useful tool with which to examine individual variation across a range of animal constructions, not just for nests.
Highlights
Famous artists and architects are noted for the individually characteristic style of their creations
Classification approaches are described with regard to their correct attribution of nests to their builder
Of the classification approaches that appeared to be more accurate than chance across all four datasets, the best was, on average, better than chance by 24.43 (±9.03)% but only tended to be more accurate
Summary
Famous artists and architects are noted for the individually characteristic style of their creations. Individual animals create structures, such as the caddisfly’s Trichoptera case [2], the pufferfishes’ Torquigener sp. Examination of the nests built by weaverbirds and sticklebacks reveals that, like humans, they may 2 exhibit individual differences in the structures they create, at least in terms of the structure’s gross morphology, e.g. mass, number of pieces of material added, shape, length, height, volume and so on [7,8]. Consistent individual differences in behaviour (repeatability) are of growing interest because they may correlate with fitness and appear to be heritable in some instances [9,10,11,12]
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