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Bigger babies are bolder: effects of body size on personality of hatchling snakes

Bigger babies are bolder: effects of body size on personality of hatchling snakes An animal’s susceptibility to risk may be partly dependent on its body size. But are larger individuals bolder? We assessed this question by measuring time to emerge from a shelter in repeated trials on hatchling keelback snakes (Tropidonophis mairii). Estimates of repeatability of emergence times suggested they measure some underlying personality dimension related to boldness. Larger hatchlings emerged from shelter sooner than small ones. Hatchling mass of keelbacks is substantially influenced both by maternal phenotype and by incubation conditions. Given the environmental basis of much of the variation in offspring size, the size-boldness association may reflect a facultative ability to adjust behavioural tactics to body size, as well as innate differences in personality traits between large versus small hatchlings. The link between size and boldness suggests that the survival advantage of larger offspring size in this population may be driven by snake behaviour as well as morphology. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Behaviour Brill

Bigger babies are bolder: effects of body size on personality of hatchling snakes

Mayer, Martin; Shine, Richard; Brown, Gregory P.
Behaviour , Volume 153 (3): 11 – Jan 10, 2016
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References (35)

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Subject
Regular articles
ISSN
0005-7959
eISSN
1568-539X
DOI
10.1163/1568539X-00003343
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

An animal’s susceptibility to risk may be partly dependent on its body size. But are larger individuals bolder? We assessed this question by measuring time to emerge from a shelter in repeated trials on hatchling keelback snakes (Tropidonophis mairii). Estimates of repeatability of emergence times suggested they measure some underlying personality dimension related to boldness. Larger hatchlings emerged from shelter sooner than small ones. Hatchling mass of keelbacks is substantially influenced both by maternal phenotype and by incubation conditions. Given the environmental basis of much of the variation in offspring size, the size-boldness association may reflect a facultative ability to adjust behavioural tactics to body size, as well as innate differences in personality traits between large versus small hatchlings. The link between size and boldness suggests that the survival advantage of larger offspring size in this population may be driven by snake behaviour as well as morphology.

Journal

Behaviour – Brill

Published: Jan 10, 2016

Keywords: natricine; risk aversion; shelter emergence; behavioural assay

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