Abstract
BackgroundAnimal personalities have been studied in a wide variety of taxa, but among rodents, available studies are relatively scarce and have focused mainly on social species. In this study, we evaluated the existence of personality in the solitary subterranean rodent Ctenomys talarum. Specifically, we aimed to test individual differences in behavior that are stable over time and context in males of C. talarum captured in the wild.MethodsOur experimental design included two series of three behavioral tests each, carried out with a 35 day time interval. Each series included an Open Field test, a Social Encounter test, and an Open Field test with a predator stimulus.ResultsOf the total recorded behaviors, 55.55% showed temporal consistency. Principal component analysis of consistent behaviors grouped them into four dimensions that explain inter individual behavioral variability, in order of importance: activity, socioaversion, boldness and exploration. Therefore, our results suggest that the concept of animal personality is applicable to C. talarum and the dimensions found are in accordance with the ecological and behavioral characteristics of this species.
Highlights
Animal behavior is considered one of the most flexible traits (West-Eberhard, 2003)
The fourth principal component (PC4) included variables related to exploration, where time spent in OFp, latency to enter the Open Field (OF), number of visits of the OF, and number of visits in Encounter test (ENC) were identified as those that loaded highest
We evaluated consistency over a period of time that represents more than 4.5% of C. talarum life span, and behavioral consistency was detected in most of the behaviors associated to the four behavioral dimensions of personality considered
Summary
Contrary to the idea of unlimited behavioral flexibility, increasing evidence indicates that the individual expression of behavior is limited by underlying state-variables such as morphology, skill set to gather information, physiology or energy reserves (Sih et al, 2004; Sih, Bell & Johnson, 2004; Sih & Bell, 2008; Wolf & Weissing, 2012) This means that individuals can only modulate their behavioral responses in a limited range, or repertoire, rather than a full range of possible behaviors for the species (Sih et al, 2004; Mathot & Dingemanse, 2015). Our results suggest that the concept of animal personality is applicable to C. talarum and the dimensions found are in accordance with the ecological and behavioral characteristics of this species
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