Primates

, Volume 54, Issue 4, pp 309–314 | Cite as

Are shy individuals less behaviorally variable? Insights from a captive population of mouse lemurs

News and Perspectives
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Increasingly, individual variation in personality has become a focus of behavioral research in animal systems. Boldness and shyness, often quantified as the tendency to explore novel situations, are seen as personality traits important to the fitness landscape of individuals. Here we tested for individual differences within and across contexts in behavioral responses of captive mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) to novel objects, novel foods, and handling. We report consistent differences in behavioral responses for objects and handling. We also found that the responses to handling and novel objects were correlated and repeatable. Lastly, we show that shyer individuals may show less variability in their behavioral responses. This study provides new information on the potential for behavioral syndromes in this species and highlights differences in the degree to which behavioral types (e.g., shy/bold) vary in their behavioral responses.

Keywords

Boldness Novel object Personality Behavioral repeatability Temperament 

References

  1. Bell AM (2005) Differences between individuals and populations of three-spined stickleback. J Evol Biol 18:464–473PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Bell AM, Stamps JA (2004) Development of behavioural differences between individuals and populations of sticklebacks, gasterosteus aculeatus. Anim Behav 68:1339–1348CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Biro PA, Stamps JA (2008) Are animal personality traits linked to life-history productivity? TREE 23:361–368PubMedGoogle Scholar
  4. Bremner-Harrison S, Prodohl PA, Elwood RW (2004) Behavioural trait assessment as a release criterion: boldness predicts early death in a reintroduction programme of captive-bred swift fox (Vulpes velox). Anim Conserv 7:313–320CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Carter AJ, Marshall HH, Heinsohn R, Colinshaw G (2012) How not to measure boldness: novel object and antipredator responses are not the same in wild baboons. Anim Behav 84:603–609CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Coleman K, Wilson DS (1998) Shyness and boldness in pumpkinseed fish: individual differences are context specific. Anim Behav 56:927–936PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Dall SRX, Houston AI, Mcnamara JM (2004) The behavioral ecology of personality: consistent individual differences from an adaptive perspective. Ecol Lett 7:734–739CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Dammhahn M (2012) Are personality differences in a small iteroparous mammal maintained by a life-history trade-off? Proc R Soc B 279:2645–2651. doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.0212 Google Scholar
  9. Dammhahn M, Almeling L (2012) Is risk taking during foraging a personality trait? A field test for cross-context consistency in boldness. Anim Behav 84:1131–1139CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Dingemanse NJ, Réale D (2005) Natural selection and animal personality. Behav 142:1165–1190Google Scholar
  11. Dingemanse NJ, Bouwman KM, van de Pol M, van Overveld T, Patrick SC, Matthysen E, Quinn JL (2012) Variation in personality and behavioural plasticity across four populations of the great tit parus major. J Anim Ecol 81:116–126Google Scholar
  12. Dochtermann NA, Jenkins SH (2007) Behavioural syndromes in Merriam’s kangaroo rats (dipodomys merriami): a test of competing hypotheses. Proc R Soc B 274:2343–2349PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Drea CM, Wallen K (1999) Low-status monkeys “Play dumb” when learning in mixed social groups. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 96:12965–12969PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Gelman A, Hill J (2007) Data analysis using regression and multilevel/hierarchical models. Cambridge University Press, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
  15. Gosling SD (2001) From mice to men: what can we learn about personality from animal research? Psych Bull 127:45–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Gosling SD, John OP (1999) Personality dimensions in nonhuman animals: a cross-species review. Curr Dir Psych Res 8:69–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Hamede RK et al (2009) Contact networks in a wild Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) population: using social network analysis to reveal seasonal variability in social behaviour and its implications for transmission of devil facial tumour disease. Ecol Lett 12:1147–1157PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Lessells CM, Boag PT (1987) Unrepeatable repeatabilities: a common mistake. Auk 104:116–121CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Martin RD (1972) Adaptive radiation and behaviour of the Malagasy lemurs. Phil Trans R Soc 264:295–352CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Mittermeier RA, Tattersall I, Konstant WR, Meyers DM, Mast RB (1994) Lemurs of Madagascar. Conservation International, Washington, D.CGoogle Scholar
  21. Möeller AP, Garamszegi LZ (2012) Between individual variation in risk-taking behavior and its life history consequences. Behav Ecol 23:843–853CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Möeller AP, Nielson JT (2010) Fear screams and adaptations to avoid imminent death: effects of genetic variation and predation. Ethol Ecol Evol 22:1–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Moretz JA, Martins ELP, Robison BD (2007) Behavioral syndromes and the evolution of correlated behavior in zebrafish. Behav Ecol 18:556–562CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Nakagawa S (2004) A farewell to Bonferroni: the problems of low statistical power and publication bias. Behav Ecol 15:1044–1045CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Nakagawa S, Schielzeth H (2010) Repeatability for Gaussian and non-Gaussian data: a practical guide for biologists. Biol Rev 85:935–956PubMedGoogle Scholar
  26. Pinter-Wollman N (2012) Personality in social insects: how does worker personality determine colony personality? Curr Zool 58:579–587Google Scholar
  27. Pintor LM, Sih A, Bauer ML (2008) Differences in aggression, activity and boldness between native and introduced populations of an invasive crayfish. Oikos 117:1629–1636CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. Powell DM (2010) A framework for introduction and socialization processes in mammals. In: Kleiman DG, Thompson KV, Baer CK (eds) Wild mammals in captivity: principles and techniques. University of Chicago Press, ChicagoGoogle Scholar
  29. Powell DM, Gartner MC (2011) Applications of personality to the management and conservation of nonhuman animals. In: Inoue-Murayama M, Kawamura S, Weiss A (eds) From genes to behavior: social structure, personalities, communication. Springer, Berlin, pp 185–199Google Scholar
  30. Powell DM, Svoke JT (2008) Novel environmental enrichment may provide a tool for rapid assessment of animal personality: a case study with giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). J Appl Anim Welf Sci 11:301–318PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Quinn JL, Cresswell W (2005) Personality, anti-predation behaviour and behavioural plasticity in the chaffinch Fringilla coelebs. Behaviour 142:1377–1402CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Radespiel U (2000) Sociality in the gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) in northwestern Madagascar. Am J Primatol 51:21–40PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Réale D, Gallant BY, Leblanc M, Festa-Bianchet M (2000) Consistency of temperament in bighorn ewes and correlates with behaviour and life history. Anim Behav 60:589–597PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Rodriguez-Prieto I, Martín J, Fernández-Juricic E (2011) Individual variation in behavioral plasticity: direct and indirect effects of boldness, exploration and sociability on habituation to predators in lizards. Proc R Soc B 278:266–273PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. Sih A, Bell A, Johnson JC (2004a) Behavioral syndromes: an ecological and evolutionary overview. TREE 19:372–378PubMedGoogle Scholar
  36. Sih A, Bell A, Johnson JC (2004b) Behavioral syndromes: an integrated overview. Quart Rev Biol 79:241–277PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Wilson DS (1998) Adaptive individual differences within single populations. Phil Trans Roy Soc B 353:199–205Google Scholar
  38. Wilson DS (2007) Evolution for everyone: how Darwin’s theory can change the way we think about our lives. Delacorte Press, New YorkGoogle Scholar
  39. Wilson ADM, Godin JJ (2009) Boldness and behavioral syndromes in the bluegill sunfish, Lepomis macrochirus. Behav Ecol 20:231–237CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Wilson DS, Clark AB, Coleman K, Dearstyne T (1994) Shyness and boldness in humans and other animals. TREE 9:442–446Google Scholar
  41. Wolf M, Van Doorn GS, Leimar O, Weissing FJ (2007) Life-history trade-offs favour the evolution of animal personalities. Nature 447:581–584Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Japan Monkey Centre and Springer Japan 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent)DurhamUSA
  2. 2.Department of Biological SciencesNorth Carolina State UniversityRaleighUSA
  3. 3.Department of Biological SciencesUniversity of LeedsLeedsUK

Personalised recommendations