Is risk taking during foraging a personality trait? A field test for cross-context consistency in boldness

The dilemma of foraging herbivores: dealing with food and fear

“…Personality has also been shown to affect an individual's perceived landscape of fear. Free-ranging bold grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus), for example, take less time than shy individuals to enter the same risky feeding stations (Dammhahn and Almeling 2012). Personality has yet to be considered in the context of mammalian herbivores foraging in a heterogeneous landscape of food and fear.…”

Demystifying animal ‘personality’ (or not): why individual variation matters to experimental biologists

“…Thus, an important area of research in behavioural ecology is to validate whether behaviour measured under standardized (but artificial) conditions underlies ecological or fitness-relevant behaviour and life-history traits in nature, such as foraging, mating, parental care, agonistic interactions and dispersal (e.g. Herborn et al, 2010;Cole and Quinn, 2012;Dammhahn and Almeling, 2012;Niemelä et al, 2015).…”

Evaluation of boldness assays and associated behavioral measures in a social parrot, monk parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus)

“…Although risk-sensitivity has been considered a major constraint on foraging behaviour for most species (Real & Caraco, 1986;Kie, 1999;Dammhahn & Almeling, 2012), and latency to approach the novel object has been one of the most common measures used to reflect boldness (Short & Petren, 2008;Dammhahn & Almeling, 2012;Kurvers et al, 2012a), we did not observe any association between the behavioural output in the novel object test and the remaining boldness tests. In novel object assays, the unusual item is placed in a familiar feeding tray, and this is hypothesized to invoke an elevated perception of risk (Greenberg, 1984).…”

“…We suggest that research conducted in a captive setting can facilitate decisions concerning the choice of boldness metrics that are both reliable and practical for field settings. Adapting the best experimental procedures for field-oriented research programs is of high importance in generating understanding of the functions of boldness in ecological contexts (Dammhahn & Almeling, 2012). Moreover, captive testing involving multiple metrics -including those used in the wild -is necessary to assess whether the same behavioural patterns are being assessed in both captive and free-ranging population (Carter et al, 2012d;Forss et al, 2015).…”

“…In many species, individuals exhibit consistent intra-specific differences in their reaction to potentially risky situations (Boissy, 1995;Greenberg & Mettke-Hofmann, 2001;Carere & Maestripieri, 2013). Such variation in risk-taking behaviour is sometimes described as an individuals' relative 'boldness'; a well-studied animal personality trait (Sloan Wilson et al, 1994;Arnold et al, 2007;Jones & Godin, 2010;Dammhahn & Almeling, 2012). Although the term boldness has sometimes been used synonymously with behavioural phenomena such as 'exploratory activity' (Verbeek et al, 1994;Minderman et al, 2009) and 'neophobia' (Boogert et al, 2006), here we follow the conceptual definition discussed by Carter et al (2012a): boldness captures the willingness to utilize resources such as food or habitat in the presence of threatening stimuli (Bell, 2005;Campo et al, 2015;Finkler & Terkel, 2015).…”