Recent debate has focused on whether variation in personality primarily reflects variation in resource allocation or resource acquisition of individuals. These two mechanisms predict different relationships between personality and survival. If personality mainly reflects variation in resource allocation, then bold (i.e. risk-taking) individuals are expected to live shorter lives, whereas the opposite pattern is expected with resource acquisition. Here we studied the relationship between neonate personality and early-life survival in 269 juveniles of a population of fallow deer ( Dama dama ). We found that bolder individuals paid no apparent survival cost. Interestingly, among-individual differences in the physiological response at capture (heart rates, which covary with the behavioural response, i.e. latency to leave) were linked to survival, where individuals with lower heart rates when handled by humans had a higher probability of early-life survival. This suggests that bolder individuals may be of higher state than their shyer counterparts. As the first study linking neonate personality to survival in a free-ranging mammal, we provide novel insights into drivers behind early-life individual variation.
Recent debate has focused on whether variation in personality primarily reflects variation in resource allocation or resource acquisition of individuals. These two mechanisms differ in their expected patterns between personality and survival. If personality mainly reflects variation in resource allocation, then bold (i.e. risk-taking) individuals are expected to live shorter, whereas the opposite pattern is expected with resource acquisition. Here we studied the relationship between neonate personality and early-life survival in 269 juveniles of a population of fallow deer (Dama dama). We found that bolder individuals were more likely to survive, and therefore, paid no apparent survival cost. Interestingly, the physiological but not the behavioural dimension of neonate boldness was directly linked to survival, suggesting that these individuals may be of higher state than their shyer counterparts. As the first study linking neonate personality to survival in a free-ranging mammal, we provide novel insights into drivers behind early-life individual variation.
Human settlements and activities alter the natural environment acoustically and visually. Traffic noise and street lights are two of the most prominent pollutants which may affect animal activity patterns. Birds in urban areas have been reported to sing nocturnally and to have an earlier dawn chorus compared to their rural counterparts. However, few studies have measured whether singing more at night or earlier in the morning means singing less during daytime. It is therefore unclear whether they shift or extend or overall increase their activities. Furthermore, few studies on anthropogenic noise-related shifts in song activity replicated well at the habitat level. We recorded singing activity in urban and rural great tits (Parus major) for 24 h and sampled 11 urban-rural pairs of territories, inside and outside 11 different cities across the Netherlands. We found that urban birds sing earlier during the day, have similar singing effort in the dawn chorus, but sing less than rural birds during the rest of the day. The shift in timing between urban and rural birds was 22 min on average and resulted in more songs for urban birds during a less noisy time of the day. The lower singing activity over the day made that urban birds sang less when it was more noisy compared to the natural rhythm of rural great tits. We currently lack insight into whether these differences yield any positive or negative fitness consequences, but it is a clear case of how anthropogenic effects on the natural environment influence fundamental aspects of daily life in the animal communities with which we share the urban habitat.
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