The impact of personality on the success of prospecting behavior in changing landscapes

Abstract

Personality can play a large role in dispersal decisions, influencing how each individual estimates and values expected costs versus benefits of venturing out to explore the unknown. We contrast the impact of persistence on fitness using decision theory models to examine the relative success of prospecting movement (which is a widespread behavior used by animals to explore available breeding habitat before determining where to settle) in different landscapes among individuals with different personalities. While evaluating trends in the costs and benefits of movement we provide a quantifiable measure of the impacts of relative tenacity in prospecting behavior on fitness gains/losses. Our model results predict that, regardless of landscape composition, individuals with greater tenacity in prospecting strategy have reduced fitness gains relative to individuals who are more willing to both initiate novel strategies, but then also abandon the new strategy rapidly if initial search does not seem fruitful. We show that fitness gains from choosing an appropriate prospecting strategy (i.e. abandoning poor habitat or staying in rich habitat) can be very high, indicating a potentially large influence from personality on fitness. Importantly, the model predicts that relative fitness gains are highly dependent on the availability of high quality habitat in the landscape, even if the difference under varying fitness outcomes between poor and rich habitat was substantial.

High frequency of prospecting for informed dispersal and colonisation in a social species at large spatial scale

“…Besides environmental features, prospecting also varies within populations, depending on personalities (Schuett et al 2012 ; Burkhalter et al 2015 ), age, and sex (Doligez et al 2004 ; Ward 2005 ; Wolfson et al 2020 ), but data are still scarce to define a general pattern of their influence. Little is also known about the role of life histories, because even though most data come from long-lived species, short-lived species may also prospect (Pärt et al 2011 ).…”

Full Issue

“…Although familiarity with a site had an effect on selection, SY plovers made choices that were related to current conditions as well, which could have affected the rate at which birds nested on prospected habitat (Burkhalter et al 2015). Understanding how habitat use influences individual breeding site selection and, more broadly, how it affects population dynamics, may allow us to predict and anticipate colonization and emigration patterns and manage habitats to encourage recruitment or dispersal.…”

“…This exploratory behavior allows individuals to find, assess, and settle in high-quality habitat, which may yield fitness benefits, including increased survival and fecundity (Ponchon et al 2012, Saunders et al 2012, Burkhalter et al 2015. For birds with relatively high breeding site fidelity, information gained during a juvenile prospecting period could have lasting effects on breeding site selection and lifetime fitness.…”

Prospecting and informed dispersal: Understanding and predicting their joint eco‐evolutionary dynamics

“…We may expect bold individuals to explore their environment more (Martins et al, 2012), travel further (Palmer et al, 2014), and be more prone to dispersal compared to shyer individuals (Dingemanse et al, 2003). Bold individuals may thereby be more likely to display prospecting strategies (Burkhalter et al, 2015but see Schuett et al, 2012. The evolutionary consequences of personality on individual decisions, movements, and realized dispersal have already been addressed (Burkhalter et al, 2015;Cote et al, 2010;Duckworth, 2008;Duckworth & Badyaev, 2007), but public information use has never been explicitly included.…”

“…Bold individuals may thereby be more likely to display prospecting strategies (Burkhalter et al, 2015but see Schuett et al, 2012. The evolutionary consequences of personality on individual decisions, movements, and realized dispersal have already been addressed (Burkhalter et al, 2015;Cote et al, 2010;Duckworth, 2008;Duckworth & Badyaev, 2007), but public information use has never been explicitly included.…”