Personality traits are consistent when measured in the field and in the laboratory in African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio)

Abstract

International audiencePersonality in free-living individuals has predominantly been measured under standardized laboratory conditions. Such measurements have been then linked to life-history traits, fitness and survival. Yet, it remains unclear how such personality measurements reflect the variation shown by free-living individuals, if the same measurements were taken directly in their natural environment. Here, we used free-living African striped mice to test whether the personality traits of activity, boldness, exploration and aggression are consistent when measured in the laboratory and in the field contexts. First, we established whether personality traits were repeatable and consistent within one context. Next, we compared measurements across the two different contexts. Additionally, we established whether personality traits were correlated with one another in behavioural syndromes and assessed whether the resulting syndromes were consistent across the two contexts. All personality traits in the laboratory were measured using classical personality tests. The same tests were then modified and used to measure personality of the same individuals in the field. All personality traits were highly repeatable and consistent within the same context. In addition, individuals behaved consistently for all the behaviours measured both in the laboratory and in the field. Further, we found that the presence of two correlated context-specific separate latent variables (one for the field and one for the laboratory) underpinned all the behaviours measured, indicating that there is a context-specific syndrome in this species. Overall, our results confirm that measurements of personality traits of wild striped mouse individuals recorded in the laboratory environment are consistent with the traits that the same individuals show under natural conditions

Assessing the repeatability, robustness to disturbance, and parent–offspring colony resemblance of collective behavior

“…These laboratory assays were used to assess the resemblance of parent and offspring colonies in a common garden environment. Although we might expect behaviour in the laboratory to differ substantially from that in the field due to the lack of all natural cues (but see: Boon, Réale, & Boutin, 2008;Fisher, James, Rodriguez-Munoz, & Tregenza, 2015;Herborn et al, 2010;Yuen, Pillay, Heinrichs, Schoepf, & Schradin, 2016), we might still expect the ranking of colonies in terms of their foraging aggression to be similar in both the laboratory and in the field. In this case, a positive correlation would be expected.…”

Validating standardised personality tests under semi‐natural conditions in wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus)

“…Studies investigating behaviour of wild rodents have used tests adapted from these standardised tests to study the interaction between personality traits and ecological characteristics (Boon, Reale, & Boutin, ; Herde & Eccard, ; Yuen, Pillay, Heinrichs, Schoepf, & Schradin, , ). Common voles ( Microtus arvalis ) were for example found to exhibit seasonal differences in activity, measured as number of movements and number of barrier crosses and boldness, measured as latency to move and cross a barrier in an open field and a barrier crossing test (Herde & Eccard, ).…”

“…The different interpretations of the behaviours measured in supposedly the same situation such as an open field test can have a number of reasons. Two possible explanations that are currently discussed in the field relate to how individuals of different species or populations experience the situation (Carter, Feeny, Marshall, Cowlishaw, & Heinsohn, ) and the validity of measurements from standardised laboratory test setups to reflect natural behaviour (Arvidsson, Adriaensen, Dongen, Stobbeleere, & Matthysen, Lecorps, Kappel, Weary, & Keyserlingk, ; Yuen, Pillay, Heinrichs, Schoepf, & Schradin, ). Related to the first argument, one might for example argue that an open field should be a more stressful situation for species or populations which are predated on open ground while it should be less stressful for species/populations which main predators use different hunting strategies.…”

“…Common voles (Microtus arvalis) were for example found to exhibit seasonal differences in activity, measured as number of movements and number of barrier crosses and boldness, measured as latency to move and cross a barrier in an open field and a barrier crossing test (Herde & Eccard, 2013). Red squirrel exploration (a composite principal component score) of an open field was found to affect habitat use and survival (Boon et al, 2008) while boldness/ activity in an open field and exploration of a novel object were not related to the use of reproductive tactics as indicated by stability of personality traits across tactic switches in African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio, Yuen, Pillay, Heinrichs, Schoepf, & Schradin, 2015 (Carter, Feeny, Marshall, Cowlishaw, & Heinsohn, 2013) and the validity of measurements from standardised laboratory test setups to reflect natural behaviour (Arvidsson, Adriaensen, Dongen, Stobbeleere, & Matthysen, 2017Lecorps, Kappel, Weary, & Keyserlingk, 2018Yuen, Pillay, Heinrichs, Schoepf, & Schradin, 2016 (Arvidsson et al, 2017, Lecorps et al, 2018. Arvidsson et al (2017) compared activity measured in a standardised test environment in great tits (Parus major) and compared to an exploration of a semi-natural enclosure.…”

Does the field of animal personality provide any new insights for behavioral ecology?

“…Genetically polymorphism is maintained because of "supergenes", linked clusters of coevolved genes that give rise to divergent fitness-related traits that are variable within species (Schwander et al 2014;Tuttle et al 2016). Hence, while personality researchers would have been satisfied with identifying behavioral differences (e.g., Malange et al 2016;Michelangeli et al 2016;Yuen et al 2016), the fields of life-history evolution and behavioral genetics allows us to understand why individuals differ in their behavior. This is just one of many examples of studies that have identified the genetic mechanisms underlying animal behavior.…”