Effects of developmental environment on animal personality in a tropical skink

Abstract

Developmental environments play a significant role in shaping animal phenotype, including behavior. Within a species, individuals often differ in behavior in a consistent and repeatable way (i.e., demonstrate animal personality). This consistency in behavior can be affected by differences in conditions experienced early in life. It is, however, unclear whether effects of developmental environments on animal personality are driven by changes in within- or between-individual variation. To investigate this, we measured activity, exploration, sociability, and boldness in adult male southern rainforest sunskinks, Lampropholis similis, incubated at either 23 °C or 26 °C, and compared behavioral phenotypes between these incubation treatments. We also compared the behavior of these incubation groups to a cohort of wild-caught skinks to determine whether rearing in captivity also affected the personality of the lizards. Skinks that had been incubated at a higher temperature were more explorative and demonstrated personality in a larger suite of traits compared to lizards incubated at a lower temperature or caught in the wild. These differences among developmental environment were primarily driven by within-individual variation, which tended to be higher among the high incubation treatment. We also found no evidence for a behavioral syndrome in either captive- or wild-reared skinks. Our results suggest the potential for greater behavioral plasticity in skinks incubated at a higher temperature, which may enable them to cope with environmental change, such as climate warming, in the short term. Overall, we show that effects of developmental environment are complex and play a pivotal role in shaping animal personality.Significance statementExperiences during development are expected to influence how animals develop, including their behavior. We tested early environment effects on behavior in adult southern rainforest sunskinks by comparing lizards incubated at different temperatures as well as comparing those reared in the wild with those reared in captive environments. We found that lizards incubated at the higher temperature were more exploratory. Furthermore, both incubation temperature and captivity/wild-rearing had pronounced effects on the consistency of behavior—in different directions for different traits—demonstrating developmental environments have strong effects on animal personality. Such changes in behavioral traits likely have flow-on effects for the animal’s fitness and biotic interactions.