Data from: Experience during development triggers between-individual variation in behavioural plasticity

1. Behavioural consistency within and across behaviours (animal personality and behavioural syndrome, respectively) have been vigorously studied in the last decade, leading to the emergence of ’animal personality’ research. It has been proposed recently that not only mean behaviour (behavioural type), but the environmentally induced behavioural change (behavioural plasticity) might also differ between individuals within populations. 2. While case studies presenting between-individual variation in behavioural plasticity have started to accumulate, the mechanisms behind its emergence are virtually unknown. We have recently demonstrated that ecologically relevant environmental stimuli during ontogeny are necessary for the development of animal personality and behavioural syndromes. However, it is unknown whether between-individual variation in behavioural plasticity is hard-wired or induced. 3. Here, we tested whether experience with predation during development affected predator-induced behavioural plasticity in Rana dalmatina tadpoles. We ran a common garden experiment with two ontogenetic predation treatments: tadpoles developed from hatching in either the presence or absence of olfactory predator stimuli. Then, we assayed all tadpoles repeatedly for activity and risk-taking both in the absence and presence of olfactory predator stimuli. 4. We found that (i) between-individual variation in predator-induced behavioural plasticity was present only in the group that developed in the presence of olfactory stimuli from predators and (ii) previous experience with predatory stimuli resulted in lower plastic response at the group-level. The latter pattern resulted from increased between-individual variation and not from universally lower individual responses. We also found that experience with predation during development increased the predictability (i.e. decreased the within-individual variation unrelated to environmental change) of activity, but not risk-taking. In line with this, tadpoles developing under perceived predatory risk expressed their activity with higher repeatability. 5. We suggest that ecologically relevant environmental stimuli are not only fundamental for the development of animal personality and behavioural syndromes, but also for individual variation in behavioural plasticity. Thus, experience is of central importance for the emergence of individual behavioural variation at many levels.1. 行为内部及跨行为的行为一致性（分别对应动物个性（animal personality）与行为综合征（behavioural syndrome））在近十年间得到了广泛深入的研究，推动了“动物个性”研究领域的兴起。近期有研究提出，种群内个体间的差异不仅体现在平均行为（即行为类型（behavioural type））上，环境诱导的行为变化——行为可塑性（behavioural plasticity）——也可能存在个体差异。 2. 尽管关于行为可塑性的个体间差异的个案研究已开始不断涌现，但其产生背后的机制仍几乎未被探明。我们此前已证实，个体发育（ontogeny）过程中与生态相关的环境刺激，是动物个性与行为综合征形成的必要条件。但目前仍不清楚，行为可塑性的个体间差异究竟是先天固化的，还是后天诱导产生的。 3. 本研究旨在探究发育过程中的捕食经历是否会影响达尔马提亚林蛙（Rana dalmatina）蝌蚪的捕食者诱导行为可塑性。我们设置了两项发育阶段捕食处理的同质园实验（common garden experiment）：蝌蚪从孵化阶段起，分别暴露于有或无捕食者嗅觉刺激（olfactory predator stimuli）的环境中。随后，我们在有、无捕食者嗅觉刺激的两种情境下，对所有蝌蚪的活动能力（activity）与冒险行为（risk-taking）进行了重复测定。 4. 研究结果显示：（i）捕食者诱导的行为可塑性的个体间差异，仅存在于发育过程中暴露于捕食者嗅觉刺激的组别中；（ii）此前接触过捕食刺激的群体，其群体水平的可塑性响应更低。后一种模式源于个体间差异的增大，而非所有个体的响应普遍降低。我们还发现，发育过程中的捕食经历提升了活动能力的可预测性（即减少了与环境变化无关的个体内变异），但对冒险行为并无此效果。与此一致的是，在感知到捕食风险的环境中发育的蝌蚪，其活动能力的重复性（repeatability）更高。 5. 我们认为，与生态相关的环境刺激不仅是动物个性与行为综合征形成的基础，也是行为可塑性产生个体差异的关键条件。因此，经历在多个层级的个体行为差异形成过程中，均处于核心地位。