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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access published online on April 13, 2005
Behavioral Ecology, doi:10.1093/beheco/ari045
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Received July 22, 2004
Revised March 8, 2005
Accepted March 10, 2005

Article

Context dependence of personalities: risk-taking behavior in a social and a nonsocial situation

Kees van Oers 1*, Margreet Klunder 2, and Piet J. Drent 2

1 Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Department of Animal Population Biology, P.O. Box 40, 6666 ZG Heteren, The Netherlands; Max-Planck Institute for Ornithology, Department of Behavioral Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics, P.O. Box 1564, D-82305 Starnberg (Seewiesen), Germany
2 Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Department of Animal Population Biology, P.O. Box 40, 6666 ZG Heteren, The Netherlands

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Kees van Oers, E-mail: k.vanoers{at}nioo.knaw.nl or oers@orn.mpg.de


  Abstract

Individuals of many species differ consistently in their behavioral reaction to mild novel challenges. Suites of these behaviors are referred to as behavioral syndromes or personalities. Personality traits are often phenotypically and genetically correlated. Therefore, animal personalities are generally considered as broad characteristics, with one underlying genetical and physiological mechanism that is expressed across situations and contexts. Because there are carryover effects between situations, animals are not entirely flexible in their behavior in each situation. This may cause behaviors to seem nonadaptive in isolated situations. To test whether individuals with different personalities could react differently to changes in their environment, we studied context dependence of personalities in the great tit (Parus major). We tested birds categorized as either fast or slow explorers for their latency to come back to a feeding table after a mild startle (risk-taking behavior) in a nonsocial followed by a social context. We found that the relation between exploratory behavior and risk-taking behavior depended on the social context. Females in general returned later in the social test, while male reaction to the presence of a conspecific was dependent on their behavioral type. Slow males thereby reacted to the behavior of the companion and fast males did not. These results show that although personalities have a rigid structure the relation between personality traits is context dependent. These results are discussed in the perspective of the adaptive significance and maintenance of personalities.

Keywords: Behavioral syndromes; boldness; exploration; Parus major; personality; risk taking.
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