Behavioural variation in natural populations. III: Antipredator displays in the garter snake Thamnophis radix

Abstract

Recently born garter snakes ( Thamnophis radix) were subjected to a variety of threatening stimuli. The would crawl away from the investigator until high levels of lactate were attained, and then adopt one of a variety antipredator displays. These antipredator behaviours were surprisingly variable between individuals of a single population, but behaviours of individuals were consistent in replicate trials and in response to different stimuli. Snakes became more defensive when simulated predator attacks were more severe, but they became more offensive when tested at a lower temperature. Analysis of behavioural variation within and between 15 litters of full-sibling (172) snakes gave heritability estimates of 0.37 for single trials and 0.45 for the average of two replicate trials. This is the first study to examine the heritability of antipredator behaviour in any terrestrial vertebrate species.