Repeatable aversion across threat types is linked with life-history traits but is dependent on how aversion is measured

Abstract

Personality research suggests that individual differences in risk aversion may be explained by links with life-history variation. However, few empirical studies examine whether repeatable differences in risk avoidance behaviour covary with life-history traits among individuals in natural populations, or how these links vary depending on the context and the way risk aversion is measured. We measured two different risk avoidance behaviours (latency to enter the nest and inspection time) in wild great tits (Parus major) in two different contexts—response to a novel object and to a predator cue placed at the nest-box during incubation---and related these behaviours to female reproductive success and condition. Females responded equally strongly to both stimuli, and although both behaviours were repeatable, they did not correlate. Latency to enter was negatively related to body condition and the number of offspring fledged. By contrast, inspection time was directly explained by whether incubating females had been flushed from the nest before the trial began. Thus, our inferences on the relationship between risk aversion and fitness depend on how risk aversion was measured. Our results highlight the limitations of drawing conclusions about the relevance of single measures of a personality trait such as risk aversion.

Great tits take greater risk toward humans and sparrowhawks in urban habitats than in forests

“…Despite focusing on a single domain, however, we found no phenotypic correlation in the risk‐taking in great tits. Taken together, these findings suggest that detecting the existence or breakdown of phenotypic correlations might depend on the way behaviors are quantified (Davidson et al, ).…”

“…Due to logistic constraints as well as to avoid too much disturbance for ethical reasons, we kept the length of each daily test ≤1 hr, and we never conducted the two tests on the same day at the same nest, and we conducted each test only once at each nest. While this approach did not allow us to test within-individual repeatability and within-individual correlation of the two forms of risk-taking behavior (as suggested by Dingemanse, Kazem, Réale, & Wright, 2010;Dingemanse et al, 2012), it still allowed us to test the within-site and across-site phenotypic correlation of the two responses (Bókony et al, 2012;Davidson, Reichert, Crane, O'Shea, & Quinn, 2018;Myers & Hyman, 2016;Riyahi et al, 2017;Scales et al, 2011).…”

Inhibitory control performance is repeatable across years and contexts in a wild bird population

“…The lack of an effect of persistence may be because we scored the initial response (success/fail) for each independent approach to the barrier to quantify inhibitory control, as opposed to measuring performance as the number of pecks before moving around the barrier, the latter quantification being more sensitive to individual differences in persistence, and very similar to how we measured persistence. Indeed, whether behaviour is repeatable or correlates with other traits can be dependent on subtle differences in how behaviour is measured generally (Carter et al, 2012; Davidson et al, 2018).…”

Influence of age, breeding state and approach direction on sensitivity to human gaze: a field study on Azure-winged magpies

“…For example, in the breeding season, prey that involved in defending territories, mating or combating may permit closer approach by predators (Cooper and Wilson 2007;Ota 2018). Previous studies found that many animals in the breeding season may mediate risk aversion (Dreber and Hoffman 2010; Davidson et al 2018). European mink (Mustela lutreola) became bolder and more explorative in the breeding season (Haage et al 2013).…”