Correlations between personality traits and roosting behaviours suggest a behavioural syndrome in little brown bats

Abstract

Behavioural syndromes are composed of correlated suites of personality traits and can include traits related to the behaviour and ecology of free-ranging animals. We used captive little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) to test the hypothesis that behaviours measured in standardized tests reflect personality traits and form behavioural syndromes with roosting behaviours. We predicted: (1) measured behaviours would be repeatable; (2) personality traits and roosting behaviours would form behavioural syndromes; and (3) individuals with similar personality scores would associate more strongly. We observed repeatability for some traits and evidence of behavioural syndromes. Activity was strongly repeatable across time and contexts. More central individuals roosted in larger groups, while individuals with high roost-fidelity roosted in larger groups. Individuals with similar activity scores were also more likely to associate in day roosts, suggesting some behavioural assortment. Our results have implications for how behavioural variation might influence transmission of white-nose syndrome.

Personality affects dynamics of an experimental pathogen in little brown bats

“…Contact rates in roosts are, therefore, probably higher between females than between males and females. Female bats also appear to be more selective about day roosts than males [53] and the most exploratory females, therefore, may visit, and explore, different roosts more frequently [42]. As a result, exploratory females could be exposed to more conspecifics and more contaminated substrates than less exploratory females resulting in higher infection intensity.…”

“…We quantified personality traits for each individual using hole-board and Y-maze tests [ 40 – 42 ]. Traits measured for little brown bats in both tests are repeatable within individuals across time and are correlated with ecologically relevant roosting and social behaviours [ 42 ]. Although we did not measure repeatability in this study, all personality traits measured here have previously been shown to be weakly to highly repeatable (i.e.…”

“…[ 40 ], Kilgour et al . [ 41 ] and Webber and Willis [ 42 ]. behaviour description test locomotion total duration of time a bat spent moving; either crawling or climbing hole-board and Y-maze echolocation total duration of time spent stationary, presumably echolocating hole-board and Y-maze grooming total duration of time a bat spent grooming; either chewing or scratching hole-board and Y-maze line crossing intersecting vertical and horizontal grid lines separate the hole-board test into four quadrants; number of times a bat crossed a grid line hole-board flight attempts number of flight attempts hole-board frequency of head dips total number of times an individual investigated blind holes on the backboard hole-board latency to head dip time from beginning of trial a bat first investigated one of the blind holes on the backboard hole-board latency to enter time from entry into the start chamber a bat entered the test arena hole-board line crossing number of times a bat exited an arm and subsequently entered a different arm of the Y-maze test Y-maze relative time spent within 10 cm of the stimulus bat total duration of time the focal bat spent inside 10 cm of the end of the stimulus arm divided by the total duration of each test (300 s) Y-maze latency to social time from beginning of trial until the focal bat first entered within 10 cm of the stimulus bat Y-maze …”

“…We quantified personality traits for each individual using hole-board and Y-maze tests [40][41][42]. Traits measured for little brown bats in both tests are repeatable within individuals across time and are correlated with ecologically relevant roosting and social behaviours [42].…”

“…To maximize efficiency in the field we used two identical test chambers (both hole-board and Y-maze tests) interchangeably so that one could dry while the other was in use. We quantified behavioural variables for both hole-board and Y-maze tests, that have been used to quantify personality in rodents [44] and bats [40,42] (table 1 for detailed descriptions).…”