Personality Variation in Little Brown Bats

Abstract

Animal personality or temperament refers to individual differences in behaviour that are repeatable over time and across contexts. Personality has been linked to life-history traits, energetic traits and fitness, with implications for the evolution of behaviour. Personality has been quantified for a range of taxa (e.g., fish, songbirds, small mammals) but, so far, there has been little work on personality in bats, despite their diversity and potential as a model taxon for comparative studies. We used a novel environment test to quantify personality in little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) and assess the short-term repeatability of a range of behaviours. We tested the hypothesis that development influences values of personality traits and predicted that trait values associated with activity would increase between newly volant, pre-weaning young-of-the-year (YOY) and more mature, self-sufficient YOY. We identified personality dimensions that were consistent with past studies of other taxa and found that these traits were repeatable over a 24-hour period. Consistent with our prediction, older YOY captured at a fall swarming site prior to hibernation had higher activity scores than younger YOY bats captured at a maternity colony, suggesting that personality traits vary as development progresses in YOY bats. Thus, we found evidence of short-term consistency of personality within individuals but with the potential for temporal flexibility of traits, depending on age.

Within‐Individual Correlations Reveal Link Between a Behavioral Syndrome, Condition, and Cortisol in Free‐Ranging Belding's Ground Squirrels

“…; Menzies et al. ), although some studies have found relationships between condition and behavior (Sinn et al. ; David & Giraldeau ; Seltmann et al.…”

“…It is often found to be a flexible phenotypic trait, but environmental factors or feedbacks between condition and other traits could produce short-or long-term repeatability of condition (Rands et al 2003;McElreath & Strimling 2006;Luttbeg & Sih 2010). Surprisingly, there has been a relative dearth of studies assessing condition and animal personality, and those that assess it often do not find the hypothesized relationships (Johnson & Sih 2005;David et al 2011;Kurvers et al 2011;Menzies et al 2013), although some studies have found relationships between condition and behavior (Sinn et al 2010;David & Giraldeau 2012;Seltmann et al 2012). In an experiment exposing Iberian wall lizards (Podarcis hispanicus) to low-risk predation, Rodriguez-Prieto et al (2010) found that an individual's consistent level of boldness did not impact its body condition.…”

Host behaviour, age and sex correlate with ectoparasite prevalence and intensity in a colonial mammal, the little brown bat

“…We used little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) captured during fall swarming to test the hypotheses that ectoparasite prevalence and intensity is correlated with: (1) individual behaviour, sex and age of hosts; and (2) differences in host-seeking behaviour of different parasite taxa. We assessed individual behaviour using an open-field test designed to quantify activity and explorative tendencies of bats (Menzies et al, 2013). We tested four predictions of these hypotheses developed based on previous research from non-colonial animals.…”

Personality predicts ectoparasite abundance in an asocial sciurid

“…While stress may increase an individual's susceptibility to disease, it is still unclear how it might impact host–parasite dynamics. In many small mammals, stress and anxiety can be indicated by increased grooming (Katz & Roth, ; Menzies, Timonin, McGuire, & Willis, ), which can be costly if other important behaviors (such as foraging or mating) are neglected, but may be effective for removing ectoparasites. While we did not directly measure HPA function in least chipmunks, our results suggest that vigilance‐related behaviors (perhaps increasingly present in more anxious individuals) are not the main drivers of ectoparasitism in this species.…”

“…While stress may increase an individual's susceptibility to disease, it is still unclear how it might impact host-parasite dynamics. In many small mammals, stress and anxiety can be indicated by increased grooming (Katz & Roth, 1979;Menzies, Timonin, McGuire, & Willis, 2013), which can be costly if other important behaviors (such as foraging or mating) are neglected, but may be effective for removing ectoparasites.…”