Abstract
Knowledge on animal personality has provided new insights into evolutionary biology and animal ecology, as behavioural types have been shown to affect fitness. Animal personality is characterized by repeatable and consistent between-individual behavioural differences throughout time and across different situations. Behavioural repeatability within life history stages and consistency between life history stages should be checked for the independence of sex and age, as recent data have shown that males and females in some species may differ in the repeatability of behavioural traits, as well as in their consistency. We measured the repeatability and consistency of three behavioural and one cognitive traits in juvenile and adult Eurasian harvest mice (Micromys minutus). We found that exploration, activity and boldness were repeatable in juveniles and adults. Spatial recognition measured in a Y Maze was only repeatable in adult mice. Exploration, activity and boldness were consistent before and after maturation, as well as before and after first sexual contact. Data on spatial recognition provided little evidence for consistency. Further, we found some evidence for a litter effect on behaviours by comparing different linear mixed models. We concluded that harvest mice express animal personality traits as behaviours were repeatable across sexes and consistent across life history stages. The tested cognitive trait showed low repeatability and was less consistent across life history stages. Given the rising interest in individual variation in cognitive performance, and in its relationship to animal personality, we suggest that it is important to gather more data on the repeatability and consistency of cognitive traits.
Highlights
IntroductionThe interest in individual variation in behaviour within animal species has increased rapidly
Over the last decades, the interest in individual variation in behaviour within animal species has increased rapidly
We here investigated three of these traits in Eurasian harvest mice, as we considered them of particular interest in this solitary species: boldness, activity and exploration
Summary
The interest in individual variation in behaviour within animal species has increased rapidly. Consistent between-individual differences in behaviours, known as animal personality, coping styles or behavioural syndromes (Koolhaas et al 1999; Sih et al 2004; Réale et al 2007), have been analysed in all main animal taxa to date. This is due to the relevance of animal personality as an important component of animal ecology and its effects on fitness (Thomas et al 2016). Repeatability specifies the proportion of between-individual variance relative to the total phenotypic variance in a population for repeated measures of the same behaviour (Dingemanse et al 2010)
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