European green lizard (Lacerta viridis) personalities: Linking behavioural types to ecologically relevant traits at different ontogenetic stages

Abstract

Behaviour is one of the most plastic quantitative traits in animals (West-Eberhard, 2003). 47However, between-individual behavioural variation in the same context and situation became 48 accepted as a valid and biologically important phenomenon lately (Gosling, 2001; Sih et al. 49 2004a Sih et al. 49 , 2004bSmith and Blumstein, 2008;Stamps, 2007;Wilson, 1998). Individual 2014). Behavioural consistency could be seen as a disadvantageous trait, since it constraints 54 plasticity and thus limits the individual behavioural repertoire, which might be maladaptive in 55 variable environments and certain contexts (Bell, 2005(Bell, , 2007 Dzieweczynski and Hebert, 56 2013; Sih et al. 2012Sih et al. , 2004a. Thus, for instance, an individual aggressive towards conspecific 57 competitors remains aggressive in other contexts (e.g. towards predators / during mating) 58 when this behaviour is likely to decrease fitness (e.g. Berning et al. 2012). Hence, one of the 59 most important aims of current evolutionary behavioural ecology is to understand the ultimate 60 and proximate mechanisms that resulted in the emergence of behavioural consistency. 62Estimating individual quality or 'true' fitness is notoriously hard, and thus linking animal 63 personality to individual quality is not straightforward in most possible models. Further, 64 individual quality could mean different things to different researchers, and even proxies of 65 quality might depend on the conceptual framework of the study (Wilson and Nussey, 2010; 66 Bergeron et al. 2011). One possible solution for non-model species is to focus on ecologically 67 4 relevant traits with proven, or at least highly probable, link to fitness. Establishing the 68 relationships between them and personality would be relevant for understanding how 69 behavioural consistency emerges in nature. 71European green lizard (Lacerta viridis) is an excellent candidate for such a study. Males have 72 ultraviolet-blue nuptial throat colouration that is a multiple honest signal and has important 73 roles in both intra-and intersexual selection (Bajer et al. 2010(Bajer et al. , 2011(Bajer et al. , 2012 Molnár et al. 74 2012 Molnár et al. 74 , 2013 Vaclav et al. 2007). Other morphological traits have also been shown to be 75 important determinants of lizards' fitness, like the number and symmetry of femoral pores 76 (Lopez et al 2002) or the size of head (Gvozdik and Van Damme, 2003;Roughgarden, 1974; 77 Vitt, 2000). One can also include traits that are known to be strongly connected to fitness in 78 almost any species, like body size or body condition (Peters 1983;Roff 1992;Stearns 1992 Bajer et al. 2012Bajer et al. , 2011Bajer et al. , 2010 Molnár et al. 2013 Molnár et al. , 2012: (1) 154 brightness: the total reflectance from 320 and 700 nm; (2) UV chroma (relative UV intensity): 155 the percent of reflectance measured in the UV range compared to total reflectance (R 320-156 400 /R 320-700 ); and (3) blue chroma (relative blue intensity): the perc...

Comparison of personality between juveniles and adults in clonal gecko species

“…At the group level, the exploration score of juveniles was lower than that of adults, which suggests that their exploration increases with age. The opposite trend has been reported in other vertebrates such as European green lizards, Lacerta viridis (Bajer et al 2015) and red junglefowl, Gallus gallus (Favati et al 2016). These highly explorative juveniles were generally explained by the energy demands needed for growth or migratory demands in order to avoid larger competitors.…”

Blood Parasite Infection Intensity Covaries with Risk‐Taking Personality in Male Carpetan Rock Lizards (Iberolacerta cyreni)

“…Hence, we first rank‐transformed the data and gave these individuals a random rank at the end of the distribution (Bajer et al. ). Data were then normalised using the rankit method (Solomon & Sawilowsky ).…”

“…; Bajer et al. ). Importance of parasitism in changing behaviour of hosts has long been known and their role in the evolution of animal personalities and behavioural syndromes as potential selective agents gained much attention lately (Barber & Dingemanse ; Kortet et al.…”

Winter territory prospecting is associated with life‐history stage but not activity in a passerine

“…Individual behavioural consistency or animal personality has been shown in many taxa ranging from spiders (Keiser et al 2014) to lizards (Bajer et al 2015) and birds (Hollander et al 2008). Different individuals show different personalities and these differences are maintained over time and across contexts (Dingemanse and Réale 2005).…”