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

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An Erratum to this article was published on 21 September 2016

Abstract

Personality 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.

Significance statement

Animal personality research has been mostly focused on measuring traits of wild individuals under standardized laboratory conditions. Most recently, however, such approaches have come under increased scrutiny as it is unclear whether personality measured in the laboratory reflects the variation that the same individuals would show if the same measurements were taken directly in their natural habitat. Here, we used wild 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. Using similar protocols, we established whether personality traits were repeatable and consistent within one context and then compared measurements across the two different contexts. We showed that personality measures from standardized laboratory conditions are consistent with field measurements for all personality traits considered.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the Succulent Karoo Research Station (registered South African NPO 122–134) for the administrative and technical support provided. We are grateful to the manager and staff of the Goegap Nature Reserve for allowing us to collect data within the reserve. We are thankful to several field assistants and honours students, particularly Linda Lüthi, Timo Rey and Melissa Schöllen for their help with data collection. We wish to thank Prof. N. Dingemanse, Prof. D. Fisher and one anonymous reviewer for important comments, which significantly improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    C. H. Yuen, N. Pillay, I. Schoepf & C. Schradin

  2. Department of Psychology, Laboratory for Biological and Personality Psychology, University of Freiburg, D-79104, Freiburg, Germany

    M. Heinrichs

  3. Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center, University of Freiburg, D-79106, Freiburg, Germany

    M. Heinrichs

  4. Department of Animal Behaviour, Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    C. Schradin

  5. IPHC-DEPE, Université de Strasbourg, 23 rue Becquerel, 67087, Strasbourg, France

    C. Schradin

  6. CNRS, UMR7178, 67087, Strasbourg, France

    C. Schradin

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  1. C. H. Yuen
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  2. N. Pillay
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  3. M. Heinrichs
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Correspondence to C. H. Yuen.

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Ethical statement

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. Fieldwork for this study was carried out under the necessary licences and was in accordance with the relevant animal welfare regulations. Research permits were obtained from the Department of Tourism, Environment and Conservation of the Northern Cape. We received ethical clearance from the Animal Ethics Committee and the University of the Witwatersrand (AESC: 2007/38/04).

Funding

The Cogito Foundation, National Research Foundation (grant number 87769) and University of the Witwatersrand provided the funding for the project.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants.

Additional information

Communicated by N. Dingemanse

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00265-016-2213-0.

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Yuen, C.H., Pillay, N., Heinrichs, M. et al. Personality traits are consistent when measured in the field and in the laboratory in African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 70, 1235–1246 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-016-2131-1

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