Testing transgenerational transfer of personality in managed wildlife populations: a house mouse control experiment

Abstract

Pest species control operations are most effective if every individual in a population is targeted. Yet, individual personality drives variation in animal responses to devices such as traps and baits. Failing to account for differences in behavior during control operations may drive a selective removal, resulting in residual animals with biased expressions of personality. If these biased traits are passed onto offspring, control operations would become increasingly problematic. To test if biased trait expressions in founding populations are passed on to offspring, we quantified personality traits in wild‐caught house mice (Mus musculus) and created founder populations selected for biased (high, low) or intermediate expressions of activity. We released the behaviorally biased populations into outdoor yards to breed to the F1 generation and, 10 weeks later, removed the mice and quantified the personality traits of the offspring. Despite the strong personality bias in founder populations, we observed no transgenerational transfer of personality and detected no personality bias in the F1 generation. Our results provide reassuring evidence that a single intensive control operation that selects for survivors with a personality bias is unlikely to lead to a recovering population inherently more difficult to eradicate, at least for house mice.

Do high recapture rates indicate representative sampling? The relationship between recapture probability, risk-taking, and personality

“…Once the pygmy-possum was in a handling bag, the bag was suspended, and we calculated the cumulative time an animal spent immobile in 60 s. Limited access to this threatened species meant that all repeat tests were conducted within a four-night span. However, in other marsupials and small mammals, personality quantified in the short term has been consistent with traits quantified over weeks (Mella et al 2016), or even months (Wat et al 2020;Johnstone et al 2021b).…”

Bibliometric investigation of the integration of animal personality in conservation contexts

“…In addition, changes in the personality of native species exposed to invasive species, such as increased wariness when living with an invasive predator, can inform how native species adapt to changing communities (West et al., 2018). Animal personality can also influence ease of capture or recapture of individuals (Carroll et al., 2016; Johnstone et al., 2021), which could have important implications for management of invasive species. Attempted eradication via trapping may only select for individuals with certain personality traits, thus creating a population of individuals with biased personality traits that are more difficult to trap or manage (e.g., Johnstone et al., 2021).…”

“…Animal personality can also influence ease of capture or recapture of individuals (Carroll et al., 2016; Johnstone et al., 2021), which could have important implications for management of invasive species. Attempted eradication via trapping may only select for individuals with certain personality traits, thus creating a population of individuals with biased personality traits that are more difficult to trap or manage (e.g., Johnstone et al., 2021). Conversely, deliberate targeting of individuals with certain personality traits could mitigate future impacts and spread of an invasive species if personality is known to be linked to dispersal or competitive ability.…”