Ambidextrous ungulates have more flexible behaviour, bolder personalities and migrate less.

R Found,C C St Clair

doi:10.1098/rsos.160958

Abstract

Studies of wildlife have shown consistent individual variation in behavioural plasticity, which affects the rate of adaptation to changing environments. More flexible individuals may thus be more prone to habituation and conflict behaviour, but these applications of personality to wildlife management are little explored. Behavioural lateralization reflects cerebral specialization that may predict diverse expressions of behavioural plasticity. We recorded front-limb biases (i.e. handedness) in wild elk (Cervus canadensis), a species with facultative migration and high rates of habituation inside protected areas. Less lateralized elk responded more strongly to the application of aversive conditioning (predator-resembling chases by humans) by increasing their average flight response distances, but these same animals were also quicker to reduce their flight responses (i.e. habituate) when human approaches were benign. Greater laterality was correlated with, but not completely predicted by, bolder personalities, which we quantified via five correlated behavioural metrics. Lastly, lateralized elk were three times more likely to migrate, whereas less lateralized animals were similarly likely to remain near humans year-round. Lateralized behaviours can provide insight into behavioural flexibility enabling certain individuals to more quickly adapt to human-disturbed landscapes, and offer an especially productive arena for collaborative work by behaviourists, conservation biologists and wildlife managers.

Highlights

Wild populations typically respond to expanding human populations via one of avoidance, adaptation or exploitation
We studied elk in two populations over two winters and quantified front-limb laterality when elk pawed at the snow, measured the responses of elk to repeated approaches by humans that were categorized as aversive or benign, and compared their responses to a previously derived gradient of personality types
Elk in both populations exhibited front-limb biases, but the direction and magnitude of laterality differed among years and between populations

Summary

Introduction

Wild populations typically respond to expanding human populations via one of avoidance, adaptation or exploitation (sensu [1]). Species that readily desensitize and habituate to human disturbance (as described in [4]), such as coyotes (Canis latrans) [5] and elk (Cervus canadensis) [6] can thrive, but in doing so often disrupt ecosystem function through local overpopulation and disrupted predator–prey dynamics [7]. This problem is acute in protected areas where repetitive benign encounters with humans can accelerate the process of habituation [8], and prey species may exploit human-disturbed areas as predation refugia [9]. Habituated ungulates may abandon migratory behaviour to use these human-disturbed areas year-round, thereby further damaging ecological integrity [10,11]

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