Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Sex and the Syndrome: Individual and Population Consistency in Behaviour in Rock Pool Prawn Palaemon elegans

Chapman, Ben LU ; Hegg, Alexander and Ljungberg, Peter LU (2013) In PLoS ONE 8(3).
Abstract
Animal personality has been widely documented across a range of species. The concept of personality is composed of individual behavioural consistency across time and between situations, and also behavioural trait correlations known as behavioural syndromes. Whilst many studies have now investigated the stability of individual personality traits, few have analysed the stability over time of entire behavioural syndromes. Here we present data from a behavioural study of rock pool prawns. We show that prawns are temporally consistent in a range of behaviours, including activity, exploration and boldness, and also that a behavioural syndrome is evident in this population. We find correlations between many behavioural traits (activity, boldness,... (More)
Animal personality has been widely documented across a range of species. The concept of personality is composed of individual behavioural consistency across time and between situations, and also behavioural trait correlations known as behavioural syndromes. Whilst many studies have now investigated the stability of individual personality traits, few have analysed the stability over time of entire behavioural syndromes. Here we present data from a behavioural study of rock pool prawns. We show that prawns are temporally consistent in a range of behaviours, including activity, exploration and boldness, and also that a behavioural syndrome is evident in this population. We find correlations between many behavioural traits (activity, boldness, shoaling and exploration). In addition, behavioural syndrome structure was consistent over time. Finally, few studies have explicitly studied the role of sex differences in personality traits, behavioural consistency and syndrome structure. We report behavioural differences between male and female prawns but no differences in patterns of consistency. Our study adds to the growing literature on animal personality, and provides evidence showing that syndromes themselves can exhibit temporal consistency. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
PLoS ONE
volume
8
issue
3
article number
e59437
publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
external identifiers
  • wos:000316409800091
  • scopus:84875047345
  • pmid:23555034
ISSN
1932-6203
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0059437
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a43d57bf-37bb-408a-a10a-5b6383065b10 (old id 3754141)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:46:53
date last changed
2022-03-22 01:51:47
@article{a43d57bf-37bb-408a-a10a-5b6383065b10,
  abstract     = {{Animal personality has been widely documented across a range of species. The concept of personality is composed of individual behavioural consistency across time and between situations, and also behavioural trait correlations known as behavioural syndromes. Whilst many studies have now investigated the stability of individual personality traits, few have analysed the stability over time of entire behavioural syndromes. Here we present data from a behavioural study of rock pool prawns. We show that prawns are temporally consistent in a range of behaviours, including activity, exploration and boldness, and also that a behavioural syndrome is evident in this population. We find correlations between many behavioural traits (activity, boldness, shoaling and exploration). In addition, behavioural syndrome structure was consistent over time. Finally, few studies have explicitly studied the role of sex differences in personality traits, behavioural consistency and syndrome structure. We report behavioural differences between male and female prawns but no differences in patterns of consistency. Our study adds to the growing literature on animal personality, and provides evidence showing that syndromes themselves can exhibit temporal consistency.}},
  author       = {{Chapman, Ben and Hegg, Alexander and Ljungberg, Peter}},
  issn         = {{1932-6203}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  publisher    = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
  series       = {{PLoS ONE}},
  title        = {{Sex and the Syndrome: Individual and Population Consistency in Behaviour in Rock Pool Prawn Palaemon elegans}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0059437}},
  doi          = {{10.1371/journal.pone.0059437}},
  volume       = {{8}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}