Fixed behavioural plasticity in response to predation risk in the three-spined stickleback

Abstract

I experimentally tested the repeatability and plasticity of two antipredator behaviours, shoaling and risk taking, in a sample of 443 juvenile three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus . I quantified between-individual variation in these behaviours as well as behavioural changes over time in two groups of sticklebacks that were either exposed or not exposed to simulated predation pressure. Shoaling and risk taking were repeatable within individuals in both experimental and control fish. Individual willingness to shoal increased over time in both experimental and control groups, but there was no evidence that shoaling changed in response to predation risk. Risk taking also showed temporal changes: sticklebacks exposed to simulated predation risk became increasingly fearful, unlike the control fish, suggesting that this behaviour is plastic. There was, however, no evidence of between-individual variation in the behavioural changes over time in either the control or experimental condition, suggesting that behavioural plasticity is a fixed response in the individuals of this population.