Energy expenditure and personality in wild chipmunks

Vincent Careau; Pierre-Olivier Montiglio; Dany Garant; Fanie Pelletier; John R. Speakman; Murray M. Humphries; Denis Reale

doi:10.1007/s00265-015-1876-2

Energy expenditure and personality in wild chipmunks

Vincent Careau^*, Pierre-Olivier Montiglio, Dany Garant, Fanie Pelletier, John R. Speakman, Murray M. Humphries, Denis Reale

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

52 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

According to the "pace-of-life syndrome" concept, slow-fast life-history strategies favored under different ecological conditions should lead to co-adaptations between metabolic rate and personality traits such as activity, exploration, and boldness. Although the relationships between resting metabolic rate (RMR) and personality traits have been recently tested several times, we still do not know whether personality is related to the daily energy expenditure (DEE) of free-living individuals in their natural habitat. The objectives of this study were to assess the links between RMR, DEE, and two personality traits (exploration in an open-field and docility during handling) in wild eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus). Using a multivariate mixed model, we found that exploration and docility were significantly correlated at the among-individual level, confirming the presence of a behavioral syndrome within our population. We also found that exploration, but not docility, was negatively correlated with DEE. Hence, fast explorers show lower DEE levels than slow explorers, independently of RMR and docility. This result adds to an increasingly large (and complex) literature reporting the impacts of personality traits on the biology, ecology, and physiology of animals in their natural environment.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	653-661
Number of pages	9
Journal	Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Volume	69
Issue number	4
Early online date	31 Jan 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-1876-2
Publication status	Published - 16 Apr 2015

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the Ruiter Valley Land Trust for allowing us to conduct this research on their property. We thank Z. Boratyński and K. Zub for constructive criticism. We thank P. Bourgault, J.P. Boyer, M. Descôteaux, R. Morin, A. Thomas, M. Landry-Cuerrier, and all field assistants and coordinators who have helped to collect the data. This research was supported by a Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies (FQRNT) team grant, by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) discovery grants to Don Thomas, MMH, DR, DG, and FP, and by Canada Research Chair funds to DR and FP. VC and POM were funded by NSERC and FQRNT doctoral scholarships, respectively. We wish to thank the late Don Thomas for his invaluable contribution to this project.

Keywords

Doubly-labeledwater
FMR
Pace of life
Repeatability
Temperament
doubly-labeled water
basal metabolic-rate
ranging Eastern chipmunks
American red squirrels
open-field behavior
tamias-striatus
exploratory-behavior
individual variation
muroid rodents
life-history

Access to Document

10.1007/s00265-015-1876-2Licence: Unspecified

Cite this

@article{a9b5796ff3b3401da36c13cceee1e45f,

title = "Energy expenditure and personality in wild chipmunks",

abstract = "According to the {"}pace-of-life syndrome{"} concept, slow-fast life-history strategies favored under different ecological conditions should lead to co-adaptations between metabolic rate and personality traits such as activity, exploration, and boldness. Although the relationships between resting metabolic rate (RMR) and personality traits have been recently tested several times, we still do not know whether personality is related to the daily energy expenditure (DEE) of free-living individuals in their natural habitat. The objectives of this study were to assess the links between RMR, DEE, and two personality traits (exploration in an open-field and docility during handling) in wild eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus). Using a multivariate mixed model, we found that exploration and docility were significantly correlated at the among-individual level, confirming the presence of a behavioral syndrome within our population. We also found that exploration, but not docility, was negatively correlated with DEE. Hence, fast explorers show lower DEE levels than slow explorers, independently of RMR and docility. This result adds to an increasingly large (and complex) literature reporting the impacts of personality traits on the biology, ecology, and physiology of animals in their natural environment.",

keywords = "Doubly-labeledwater, FMR, Pace of life, Repeatability, Temperament, doubly-labeled water, basal metabolic-rate, ranging Eastern chipmunks, American red squirrels, open-field behavior, tamias-striatus, exploratory-behavior, individual variation, muroid rodents, life-history",

author = "Vincent Careau and Pierre-Olivier Montiglio and Dany Garant and Fanie Pelletier and Speakman, {John R.} and Humphries, {Murray M.} and Denis Reale",

note = "Acknowledgments We are grateful to the Ruiter Valley Land Trust for allowing us to conduct this research on their property. We thank Z. Boraty{\'n}ski and K. Zub for constructive criticism. We thank P. Bourgault, J.P. Boyer, M. Desc{\^o}teaux, R. Morin, A. Thomas, M. Landry-Cuerrier, and all field assistants and coordinators who have helped to collect the data. This research was supported by a Fonds Qu{\'e}b{\'e}cois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies (FQRNT) team grant, by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) discovery grants to Don Thomas, MMH, DR, DG, and FP, and by Canada Research Chair funds to DR and FP. VC and POM were funded by NSERC and FQRNT doctoral scholarships, respectively. We wish to thank the late Don Thomas for his invaluable contribution to this project.",

year = "2015",

month = apr,

day = "16",

doi = "10.1007/s00265-015-1876-2",

language = "English",

volume = "69",

pages = "653--661",

journal = "Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology",

issn = "0340-5443",

publisher = "Springer ",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Energy expenditure and personality in wild chipmunks

AU - Careau, Vincent

AU - Montiglio, Pierre-Olivier

AU - Garant, Dany

AU - Pelletier, Fanie

AU - Speakman, John R.

AU - Humphries, Murray M.

AU - Reale, Denis

N1 - Acknowledgments We are grateful to the Ruiter Valley Land Trust for allowing us to conduct this research on their property. We thank Z. Boratyński and K. Zub for constructive criticism. We thank P. Bourgault, J.P. Boyer, M. Descôteaux, R. Morin, A. Thomas, M. Landry-Cuerrier, and all field assistants and coordinators who have helped to collect the data. This research was supported by a Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies (FQRNT) team grant, by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) discovery grants to Don Thomas, MMH, DR, DG, and FP, and by Canada Research Chair funds to DR and FP. VC and POM were funded by NSERC and FQRNT doctoral scholarships, respectively. We wish to thank the late Don Thomas for his invaluable contribution to this project.

PY - 2015/4/16

Y1 - 2015/4/16

N2 - According to the "pace-of-life syndrome" concept, slow-fast life-history strategies favored under different ecological conditions should lead to co-adaptations between metabolic rate and personality traits such as activity, exploration, and boldness. Although the relationships between resting metabolic rate (RMR) and personality traits have been recently tested several times, we still do not know whether personality is related to the daily energy expenditure (DEE) of free-living individuals in their natural habitat. The objectives of this study were to assess the links between RMR, DEE, and two personality traits (exploration in an open-field and docility during handling) in wild eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus). Using a multivariate mixed model, we found that exploration and docility were significantly correlated at the among-individual level, confirming the presence of a behavioral syndrome within our population. We also found that exploration, but not docility, was negatively correlated with DEE. Hence, fast explorers show lower DEE levels than slow explorers, independently of RMR and docility. This result adds to an increasingly large (and complex) literature reporting the impacts of personality traits on the biology, ecology, and physiology of animals in their natural environment.

AB - According to the "pace-of-life syndrome" concept, slow-fast life-history strategies favored under different ecological conditions should lead to co-adaptations between metabolic rate and personality traits such as activity, exploration, and boldness. Although the relationships between resting metabolic rate (RMR) and personality traits have been recently tested several times, we still do not know whether personality is related to the daily energy expenditure (DEE) of free-living individuals in their natural habitat. The objectives of this study were to assess the links between RMR, DEE, and two personality traits (exploration in an open-field and docility during handling) in wild eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus). Using a multivariate mixed model, we found that exploration and docility were significantly correlated at the among-individual level, confirming the presence of a behavioral syndrome within our population. We also found that exploration, but not docility, was negatively correlated with DEE. Hence, fast explorers show lower DEE levels than slow explorers, independently of RMR and docility. This result adds to an increasingly large (and complex) literature reporting the impacts of personality traits on the biology, ecology, and physiology of animals in their natural environment.

KW - Doubly-labeledwater

KW - FMR

KW - Pace of life

KW - Repeatability

KW - Temperament

KW - doubly-labeled water

KW - basal metabolic-rate

KW - ranging Eastern chipmunks

KW - American red squirrels

KW - open-field behavior

KW - tamias-striatus

KW - exploratory-behavior

KW - individual variation

KW - muroid rodents

KW - life-history

U2 - 10.1007/s00265-015-1876-2

DO - 10.1007/s00265-015-1876-2

M3 - Article

SN - 0340-5443

VL - 69

SP - 653

EP - 661

JO - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

JF - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

IS - 4

ER -

Energy expenditure and personality in wild chipmunks

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this