Data from: Personality-matching habitat choice, rather than behavioural plasticity, is a likely driver of a phenotype–environment covariance

An emerging hypothesis of animal personality posits that animals choose
the habitat that best fits their personality, and that the match between
habitat and personality can facilitate population differentiation, and
eventually speciation. However, behavioural plasticity and the adjustment
of behaviours to new environments have been a classical explanation for
such matching patterns. Using a population of dunnocks (Prunella
modularis), we empirically tested whether personality or behavioural
plasticity is responsible for the non-random distribution of shy and bold
individuals in a heterogeneous environment. We found evidence for bold
individuals settling in areas with high human disturbance, but also that
birds became bolder with increasing age. Importantly, personality
primarily determines the distribution of individuals, and behavioural
adjustment over time contributes very little to the observed patterns. We
cannot, however, exclude a possibility of very early behavioural
plasticity (a type of developmental plasticity) shaping what we refer to
as ‘personality’. Nonetheless, our findings highlight the role personality
plays in shaping population structure, lending support to the theory of
personality-mediated speciation. Moreover, personality-matching habitat
choice has important implications for population management and
conservation.