Scatter-hoarding small mammals act as both seed predators and seed dispersers in forest ecosystems. Their choices regarding consuming or caching seeds must balance the risk of predation with the energy rewards gained from immediate or delayed consumption of seeds. Several factors influence their interaction with seeds, including the individual's personality. Little is known about how personality affects foraging decisions in response to predation risk. This missing information is critical because if foraging decisions differ among individuals in response to perceived risk, then varying combinations of personality types in a population (and varying risks of predation across forest types) may have diverse effects on forest regeneration. Further, land-use change may influence the interplay of personality, risk perception and foraging decisions by altering the distribution of personality types in the landscape and the risk perceived by individuals. To contribute to filling these knowledge gaps, we designed a large-scale field experiment to evaluate how personality, perceived predation risk and land-use change affect the interaction of deer mice Peromyscus maniculatus and seeds. Using infrared cameras, we recorded the choices of individuals of known personality at paired experimental sites with high versus low perceived predation risk (n = 2389 observations from 74 individuals). We found that personality influenced multiple foraging decisions, and perceived risk affected how individuals with different personalities responded to those decisions. Specifically, exploration/activity influenced seed choice, boldness affected the number of seeds selected and docility influenced both foraging site selection and whether mice immediately consumed or removed seeds. Since personality only affected foraging microsite selection in unmanaged forests, our results show that land-use change decreased the importance of personality in affecting risk perception. We demonstrate the importance of considering personality on foraging decisions under varying levels of risk, and more generally, underscore the importance of considering individual variation in affecting ecological processes.

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Conservationists rarely consider the roles individuals, with their own unique behavior, physiology, and genome, play in shaping ecosystem processes and consequently ecosystem services, but this is changing. An ongoing surge in research on animal personalities (that is, behavioral differences among individuals that are consistent over time and across contexts) is exposing the ecological roles of individuals to scientific scrutiny. Here, we present four broad examples of ecosystem services that are likely to be shaped by personalities: (1) pollination and seed dispersal, (2) regulation of pest species, (3) ecotourism, and (4) maintenance of soil quality. Although researchers have suggested diverse links between animal personality and ecosystem function, very few have examined this association. We outline a four‐step process for quantifying and validating these linkages, leading to application for conservation practitioners, and conclude by recommending that accounting for behavioral variation should be incorporated into the management of ecosystem services.

Small mammals are key scatter hoarders in forest ecosystems, acting as both seed predators and dispersers. The outcome of their interactions (i.e., predation vs. dispersal) is determined by a series of decisions made by small mammals, such as the choice of seed, whether the seed is immediately consumed or cached, and where it is cached. These decisions are influenced by a variety of factors, including the intrinsic traits of the seed, the individual personality of the scatter hoarder, and the perceived risk of predation while foraging. Furthermore, these factors may all interact to dictate the fate of the seed, with consequences for forest regeneration. Nevertheless, the ways in which perceived predation risk and personality interact to affect the seed dispersal decisions of scatter hoarders are still poorly understood. To contribute in filling this knowledge gap, we tested the hypotheses that southern red‐backed voles (Myodes gapperi), an important scatter hoarder in forest ecosystems, would exhibit personality‐mediated foraging and that predation risk would alter associations between personality and seed dispersal. We conducted a large‐scale field experiment, offering seed trays at stations with altered risk levels and recorded foraging decisions of free‐ranging voles with known personalities. We found that personality and perceived predation risk influenced decisions made by foraging voles. Specifically, docility, and boldness predicted foraging site selection, boldness predicted seed species selection and the number of seeds individuals selected, and the tendency to explore of an individual predicted whether voles would remove or consume seeds. Predation risk, mediated by the amount of cover at a site and by moon illumination, affected which foraging site individuals chose, seed species selection, and the probability of removal versus consumption. We did not find support for an interaction between personality and predation risk in predicting foraging decisions. These findings highlight the importance of scatter hoarder personality and perceived predation risk in affecting foraging decisions, with important consequences for seed dispersal and implications for altered patterns of forest regeneration in areas with different small mammal personality distributions or landscapes of fear.