Is personality and its association with energetics sex‐specific in yellow‐necked mice <i>Apodemus flavicollis</i>?

Strijker, Beau N.; Iwińska, Karolina; van der Zalm, Bram; Zub, Karol; Boratyński, Jan S.

doi:10.1002/ece3.10233

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 95 publications

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“…Figure 2b) since they already engage in a sufficiently energy-saving strategy. We found heterothermy (as mentioned above), as well as BMR and exploration to be highly repeatable in our previous studies (Boratyński et al, 2019;Strijker et al, 2023); thus, the observed behavioral variation can be considered as animal personality (defined as consistent among-individual differences in behavior across time and context: Réale et al, 2007). As the phenotypic correlation between repeatable traits indicates among-individual correlation (review in Brommer & Class, 2017), our study presents the first empirical data suggesting that heterothermy (a strategy that can improve survival but impair reproduction; Dammhahn et al, 2017;Boratyński et al, 2024) is a significant component of a broader pace-of-life syndrome (Careau et al, 2008;Réale et al, 2010).…”

Section: Modelsupporting

confidence: 81%

Predation can shape the cascade interplay between heterothermy, exploration and maintenance metabolism under high food availability

Boratyński,

Iwińska,

Wirowska

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Maintenance metabolism as the minimum energy expenditure needed to maintain homeothermy (a high and stable body temperature, Tb), reflects the magnitude of metabolic machinery and the associated costs of self‐maintenance in endotherms (organisms able to produce heat endogenously). Therefore, it can interact with most, if not all, organismal functions, including the behavior–fitness linkage. Many endothermic animals can avoid the costs of maintaining homeothermy and temporally reduce Tb and metabolism by entering heterothermic states like torpor, the most effective energy‐saving strategy. Variations in BMR, behavior, and torpor use are considered to be shaped by food resources, but those conclusions are based on research studying these traits in isolation. We tested the effect of ecological contexts (food availability and predation risk) on the interplay between the maintenance costs of homeothermy, heterothermy, and exploration in a wild mammal—the yellow‐necked mouse. We measured maintenance metabolism as basal metabolic rate (BMR) using respirometry, distance moved (exploration) in the open‐field test, and variation in Tb (heterothermy) during short‐term fasting in animals captured at different locations of known natural food availability and predator presence, and with or without supplementary food resources. We found that in winter, heterothermy and exploration (but not BMR) negatively correlated with natural food availability (determined in autumn). Supplementary feeding increased mouse density, predation risk and finally had a positive effect on heterothermy (but not on BMR or exploration). The path analysis testing plausible causal relationships between the studied traits indicated that elevated predation risk increased heterothermy, which in turn negatively affected exploration, which positively correlated with BMR. Our study indicates that adaptive heterothermy is a compensation strategy for balancing the energy budget in endothermic animals experiencing low natural food availability. This study also suggests that under environmental challenges like increased predation risk, the use of an effective energy‐saving strategy predicts behavioral expression better than self‐maintenance costs under homeothermy.

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Section: Modelsupporting

confidence: 81%

Predation can shape the cascade interplay between heterothermy, exploration and maintenance metabolism under high food availability

Boratyński,

Iwińska,

Wirowska

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Explorative behavior allows the successful finding of ephemeral food resources in the wild

Wirowska,

Iwińska,

Borowski

et al. 2023

Mamm Res

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The repeatable among-individual variation in behavior (animal personality) is considered to affect fitness. The variation in personality traits is shaped by complex evolutionary mechanisms involving energy allocation and resource acquisition. However, an association between personality and individual performance in energy gain in the natural environment still seems underexplored. The aim of our study was to test a hypothesis that consistent individual variation in behavior affects the energy acquisition of unpredictable food resources. We predicted that more explorative individuals would be finding ephemeral food resources with higher probability than those less explorative. The quasi-experiment with ‘random-walking-feeders’ was performed to assess the use of unpredictable food resources in the natural habitat occupied by free-ranging arboreal rodents — edible dormice Glis glis. A repeated open field test at laboratory conditions was conducted to assess whether male dormice show consistent among-individual variation in behavior. The open field test analysis indicated two main components of dormice behavior: exploration and boldness, from which only the first one was repeatable and thus considered as a component of animal personality. The probability of finding a feeder increased with exploration, independently of dormice age and body size. The results indicate that exploration can be considered an adaptive trait that improves energy acquisition. We suggest that the behavioral among-individual variation within populations persists due to the usage of distinct foraging strategies in the face of fluctuations in food resources availability.

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Energy allocation is revealed while behavioural performance persists after fire disturbance

Iwińska,

Wirowska,

Borowski

et al. 2024

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Metabolic physiology and animal behaviour are often considered to be linked, positively or negatively, according to either the performance or allocation models. Performance seems to predominate over allocation in natural systems, but, the constraining environmental context may reveal allocation limitations to energetically expensive behaviours. Habitat disturbance, like the large-scale fire that burnt wetlands of Biebrza National Park (NE Poland), degrades natural ecosystems. It arguably reduces food and shelters availability, modifies predator-prey interactions, and poses direct threat for animals survival, such as to the wetland specialist root vole (Microtus oeconomus). We hypothesized that fire disturbance induce physiology-behaviour co-expression, as a consequence of changed environmental context. We repeatedly measured maintenance and exercise metabolism, and behavioural responses to open field, in a root voles from post-fire and unburnt locations. Highly repeatable maintenance metabolism and distance moved during behavioural test correlated positively, but relatively labile exercise metabolism did not covary with behaviour. At the same time, voles from post-fire habitat had higher maintenance metabolism and moved shorter distances than voles from unburnt areas. We conclude a prevalence of the performance mechanism, but simultaneous manifestation of context-dependent allocation constraints of the physiology-behaviour covariation after disturbance. The last occur at the within-individual level indicating the significance of behavioural plasticity in context of environmental disturbance.

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Is personality and its association with energetics sex‐specific in yellow‐necked mice Apodemus flavicollis?

Cited by 4 publications

References 95 publications

Predation can shape the cascade interplay between heterothermy, exploration and maintenance metabolism under high food availability

Predation can shape the cascade interplay between heterothermy, exploration and maintenance metabolism under high food availability

Explorative behavior allows the successful finding of ephemeral food resources in the wild

Energy allocation is revealed while behavioural performance persists after fire disturbance

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