Food availability early in life impacts among and within individual variation in behaviour

Abstract

1. The availability of food during early life has been proposed as a key proximate mechanism for the development of variation in behaviour among and within individuals. 2. Individuals can vary amongst each other in their personality, plasticity and predictability and if an individuals behaviour is correlated across contexts this can lead to behavioural, plasticity and predictability syndromes. 3. In this study, we used a split brood design to raise African clawed frog tadpoles (Xenopus laevis) on a high or low diet in food availability and measured the distance they swam in a familiar and unfamiliar context eight times during their development. 4. In a familiar context, we found that there was an increase in among individual variance in plasticity and predictability in the high food treatment. This shows that when resources are not restricted, individuals are not constrained in the expression of their behaviour at certain phenotypic levels. 5. In an unfamiliar context, we found a different response, with an increase in individual variance in personality in the low but not the high feed tadpoles. As unfamiliar contexts may be riskier, our results highlight that individuals receiving less food may take greater foraging risks in novel contexts. 6. Across contexts, we found a predictability syndrome in the high but not the low feed tadpoles, highlighting that cross-context behaviours can become decoupled in some developmental conditions but remain intact in others. 7. Together our findings show that early life conditions contribute to among individual variation in behaviour but that these may only impact the phenotype at specific phenotypic levels and are context specific. 8. We emphasise that having a fundamental understanding of how early development may promote or constrain individual variation can provide a greater understanding of how individuals and populations may respond to novel conditions brought about by anthropogenic activity.

Personality development in wild house mice: Evidence for a nutrition-dependent sensitive period early in life

“…The authors argue that these patterns are in line with asset-protection theory: Mice who stand more to lose, should take fewer risks and protect their assets (Clark, 1994;Wolf et al, 2007). These findings resonate with a recent study in African clawed frog tadpoles (Xenopus laevis) (Beyts et al, 2023). Tadpoles who experienced food restriction early in life took greater foraging risks in novel environments compared to food-unrestricted tadpoles.…”

“…Over the past decade, interest has grown in understanding how changes in nutritional conditions shape individual differences in behavior (Beyts et al, 2023;Han & Dingemanse, 2015, 2017Moran et al, 2021;Royauté & Dochtermann, 2017). Among-individual differences that are consistent across time and contexts (statistically indicated by being repeatable), are typically referred to as 'animal personality' (Coppens et al, 2010;Réale et al, 2007;Wolf & McNamara, 2012).…”

Is the speed of adjusting to environmental change condition dependent? An experiment with house mice (Mus musculus)

“…It is already well known that risk-taking behaviors are likely condition-dependent. Although poor nutritional conditions can promote high risk-taking behaviors in animals ( Royauté and Dochtermann 2017 ; Beyts et al 2020 ), animals in good nutritional condition may be less likely to engage in risky behaviors because they have access to the resources they need to survive and reproduce ( English et al 2016 ; Barclay et al 2018 ; Moran et al 2021 ). In offspring of animals switching from better to worse, the increase in the distance covered in OF was nearly three times stronger compared with the observed increase in offspring of animals switching from worse to better which resulted in similar behavioral expressions of mean level-behaviors.…”