Intrinsic and maternal traits influence personality during early life in Galápagos sea lion, Zalophus wollebaeki, pups

DeRango, Eugene J.; Schwarz, Jonas F. L.; Kalberer, Stephanie; Piedrahíta, Paolo; Páez‐Rosas, Diego; Krüger, Oliver

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.06.011

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Animal personality is defined as consistent among-individual differences in behaviour which persist through time and in different contexts (Carter et al, 2013;Koski, 2014;Réale et al, 2007) and is commonly described by several underlying personality traits, each of which reflects a particular aspect of an individual's behavioural repertoire (Carter et al, 2013;Réale et al, 2007). Personality has been documented across taxa in several recent studies (insects: Crall et al, 2018;fish: Barber et al, 2017;Jolles et al, 2019;reptiles: Horváth et al, 2019;Michelangeli et al, 2019;birds: Morinay et al, 2019;Richardson et al, 2019;mammals: Brehm et al, 2019;DeRango et al, 2019;Petelle et al, 2019), and personality traits such as activity (Michelangeli et al, 2019), exploration (Arvidsson et al, 2017) and boldness-shyness (Jolly et al, 2019;Perals et al, 2017) have been quantified using different methods under laboratory conditions and in free-living populations in the wild (Krebs et al, 2019;Réale et al, 2007;Šlipogor et al, 2020;Tkaczynski et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring personality traits in Eurasian red squirrels: A critical comparison of different methods

et al. 2020

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Animal personality, behavioural differences among individuals which are consistent through time and contexts, is generally described by one or more traits. Different methods are used to measure these traits, such as behavioural observations and trapping indices. Comparing several methods allows to validate different tests and to better identify which aspect of an animal's personality is being measured. Here, we measured activity, exploration and immobility of Eurasian red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) using observations from the open field test (OFT), and compared them with trappability and trap-diversity indices calculated from capture-mark-recapture data in six independent study sites. Trappability measures the willingness to enter a baited trap (boldness), while trap-diversity can be a proxy for exploration tendency. Our first aim was to test their repeatability, thus their appropriateness as candidate measures of personality traits. Next, we explored the predictions that (i) trappability, measuring boldness, does not correlate with any of the OFT personality traits, since risk-taking cannot be expressed in our arena test; and (ii) trap-diversity correlates with exploration obtained from the OFT. Considering the species ecology and study design, we used multivariate Bayesian models based on different time intervals (session/year) and habitat types (alpine/plain). We found significant repeatabilities for trappability, for trap-diversity and for most OFT personality traits, except exploration in the plain sites. Independently from habitat type or time interval, trappability did not correlate with either activity, exploration or immobility from OFT, thus measuring a different personality axis, which we considered a proxy for boldness. Trap-diversity did not correlate with exploration from OFT, but seems related to a different aspect of red squirrels' exploration tendency. Our study emphasizes that caution is needed when using behaviours from OFT to measure multiple personality traits and that applying extra methods based on animals' responses to trapping can provide reliable proxies for boldness and exploration tendency.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring personality traits in Eurasian red squirrels: A critical comparison of different methods

et al. 2020

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“…For females with measures of resting HRV for more than one season (Table 3) we determined population level repeatability (R 86,87 ) using the 'rptR' package 88 with individual as a random effect and the number of measures per individuals as a fixed effect, with parametric bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals computed from 1,000 simulations. We also derived repeatability estimates for every individual (Ri) by dividing the between-individual variance (σ2α) by the sum of between-individual variance and the residual variance for each individual 20 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As behavioural expression is often context dependent, patterns of inter-individual variation expressed in arguably abstract laboratory conditions or under acute stress may not always be expressed in the range of natural conditions a species experiences 14,15 , though see 16 . Thus, an increasing number of studies are attempting to assess personality and its consequences in natural wild settings, where inter-individual variation will have its ecologically and evolutionary relevant consequences 14,[17][18][19][20] .…”

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confidence: 99%

“…mode of locomotion) and sensory capabilities of the subject species. Thus, tests, and the behavioural metrics extracted, can be very species specific, particularly when attempting to conduct behavioural tests in situ, where local environmental conditions may also dictate experimental design 17,20,21 . Consequently, identifying clear commonality in the meaning of behavioural tests across multiple species can be challenging [22][23][24] .…”

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confidence: 99%

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Reactive stress-coping styles show more variable reproductive expenditure and fitness outcomes

Twiss

Shuert

Brannan

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Stress-coping styles dictate how individuals react to stimuli and can be measured by the integrative physiological parameter of resting heart-rate variability (HRV); low resting HRV indicating proactive coping styles, while high resting HRV typifies reactive individuals. Over 5 successive breeding seasons we measured resting HRV of 57 lactating grey seals. Mothers showed consistent individual differences in resting HRV across years. We asked whether proactive and reactive mothers differed in their patterns of maternal expenditure and short-term fitness outcomes within seasons, using maternal daily mass loss rate to indicate expenditure, and pup daily mass gain to indicate within season fitness outcomes. We found no difference in average rates of maternal daily mass loss or pup daily mass gain between proactive and reactive mothers. However, reactive mothers deviated more from the sample mean for maternal daily mass and pup daily mass gain than proactive mothers. Thus, while proactive mothers exhibit average expenditure strategies with average outcomes, expenditure varies much more among reactive mothers with more variable outcomes. Overall, however, mean fitness was equal across coping styles, providing a mechanism for maintaining coping style diversity within populations. Variability in reactive mothers’ expenditures and success is likely a product of their attempts to match phenotype to prevailing environmental conditions, achieved with varying degrees of success.

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“…The approach stopped, either when the sea lion began moving toward the observer, or when the observer came within 2 m of the sea lion -the Galápagos National Park's minimum required distance from wildlife. Finally, the observer rated the sea lion's reaction to their approach on a scale of 0-5, with scores of 4 and 5 representing aggressive reactions: 0: the sea lion's eyes were closed (possibly asleep) and the sea lion did not react 1: the sea lion's eyes were open and the sea lion did not react 2: the sea lion lifted/moved its head to look at the observer 3: the sea lion moved away from the observer 4: the sea lion vocalized (growl or bark) 5: the sea lion moved toward the observer This 0-5 scale is an adaptation of the scales used to measure behavioral responses to human approach in squirrels (Cooper et al 2008), polar bears (Dyck and Baydack 2004) and sea lions (Orsini et al 2006, DeRango et al 2019.…”

Section: Approach Assaymentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of human exposure on Galápagos sea lion behavior

Walsh

Kovaka

Vaca³

et al. 2020

Wildlife Biology

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he endangered Galápagos sea lion lives among a rapidly growing human population, and conlicts between humans and sea lions are increasing. Protection of this fragile species requires a better understanding of how anthropogenic activity afects its health and survival. In this study, we engaged a group of local students in a community science project to conduct long-term observations of the efects of human disturbance on sea lion behavior. We compared three types of behavior -reaction to human approach, vocalizations and group size -across four diferent haul-out sites which varied in their levels of human disturbance. We found that sea lions respond less aggressively to humans on beaches that are more disturbed. his may be because sea lions acclimate to human disturbance or because sea lions with a low tolerance for humans avoid disturbed sites. We also found that aggressive vocalizations between sea lions increase as sea lion group size increases, though group size was not linked to human disturbance. We did not quantify stress levels, but aggressive behavior often indicates elevated stress levels, which are energetically costly and can impair immune function. Our results suggest that conservation eforts should focus on limiting human-sea lion interactions and increasing the number and quality of available haul-out sites.

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Intrinsic and maternal traits influence personality during early life in Galápagos sea lion, Zalophus wollebaeki, pups

Cited by 17 publications

References 76 publications

Measuring personality traits in Eurasian red squirrels: A critical comparison of different methods

Measuring personality traits in Eurasian red squirrels: A critical comparison of different methods

Reactive stress-coping styles show more variable reproductive expenditure and fitness outcomes

The effects of human exposure on Galápagos sea lion behavior

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