Abstract
BackgroundIntra-individual stable but inter-individually variable behaviours, i.e. personalities, are commonly reported across diverse animal groups, yet the reasons for their maintenance remain controversial. Therefore, studying fitness consequences of personality traits is necessary to discriminate between alternative explanations.ResultsHere, I measured boldness, a highly repeatable personality trait, and reproductive success in male guppies, Poecilia reticulata. I found that bolder males had higher reproductive success than their shyer conspecifics and they sired offspring with females who had larger clutches.ConclusionsThis result provides direct evidence for fitness consequences of boldness in the guppy. It suggests that the effect may be driven by bolder males mating with more fecund females.
Highlights
Intra-individual stable but inter-individually variable behaviours, i.e. personalities, are commonly reported across diverse animal groups, yet the reasons for their maintenance remain controversial
An alternative explanation was that personality traits could influence an individual’s fitness, and in the last few decades researchers have found some evidence for associations between personality traits and fitness components
Boldness did not significantly explain male number of mates (z7,71 = − 1.33, p = 0.183; Additional file 4: Figure S4, full model in Table 2), which implies that the positive effect of boldness on male reproductive success was not mediated by bolder males mating with a larger number of females
Summary
Intra-individual stable but inter-individually variable behaviours, i.e. personalities, are commonly reported across diverse animal groups, yet the reasons for their maintenance remain controversial. Conclusions: This result provides direct evidence for fitness consequences of boldness in the guppy. It suggests that the effect may be driven by bolder males mating with more fecund females. An alternative explanation was that personality traits could influence an individual’s fitness, and in the last few decades researchers have found some evidence for associations between personality traits and fitness components (reviewed in [5]) Both, studies supporting such associations [6,7,8], as well as not [9,10,11], have been published to date, and no consistent pattern of the general effect of personalities on fitness has yet emerged.
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