Boldness as a consistent personality trait in the noble crayfish, Astacus astacus

Abstract

Consistent individual differences in behavioural responses to perceived predation risk may have extensive ecological and evolutionary implications. We studied the repeatability of boldness across time and its relation to resource holding potential in the noble crayfish, Astacus astacus L., using predator-naïve immature individuals. We followed individual's shelter use both with and without exposure to the chemical and physical cues of predators, and with and without the presence of a conspecific. In addition, we examined if armament, i.e. relative chelae size, would be correlated with individual differences in behaviour. Individuals showed repeatable behaviours across time and context. Individuals that occupied the shelter in competitive dyadic tests also spent more time in the shelter during individual control observations, suggesting that boldness is a personality trait that does not necessarily relate positively to high resource holding potential in the noble crayfish. The relative size of chelae did not correlate with any of the measured behavioural variables. Our results suggest that boldness can be considered as individually consistent and ecologically important personality trait in the noble crayfish.

High Repeatability of Anti-Predator Responses and Resting Metabolic Rate in a Beetle

“…Réale et al 2010a, b;Vainikka et al 2011;Niemelä et al 2012). The concept of POLS is supported by the finding that such important anti-predator responses as the latency to become immobile and the total duration spent immobile under the risk of predation are under the control of individual metabolic rate.…”

Nymphal density, behavioral development, and life history in a field cricket

“…If aggressive individuals felt the tubes used in boldness trials as a refuge, they may also have perceived them as a defendable resource, and therefore stayed longer times inside the tube compared to less aggressive individuals (c.f. Vainikka et al 2011). There were differences in the expression of several life history traits (i.e., body mass, encapsulation response, and developmental time) between our treatments. This emphasizes that our experimental setup did induce plastic effects, and that changes in behaviors would have been highly expected if present.…”

Personality differences in two minnow populations that differ in their parasitism and predation risk

“…Within-population and between-population variation in personality traits has been described in a number of taxa including squid (Sinn et al, 2010), spiders (e.g., Hedrick and Riechert, 1989), field crickets Niemelä et al, 2012), fish (e.g., Bell and Sih, 2007;Dingemanse et al, 2007), crayfish (Vainikka et al, 2011), birds (Atwell et al, 2012) and primates (Weiss and Adams, 2013). In general, it can be predicted that the stronger the environmental selection by parasitism or predation, the more consistently an individual should follow the behavioral trajectory set by its initial and current assets, and the more likely it is that animal personalities will emerge in a population (Kortet et al, 2010).…”