Data and code from: Individual characteristics, experience and environmental conditions shape large-scale patterns of animal activity timing

The timing of an animal’s activity is an essential determinant of its
survival and reproduction because timing determines the nature of every
interaction an organism has with its abiotic and biotic environment.
Although the timing of activity may depend on aspects of the individual
(e.g., body mass, reproductive status, experience) or the nature of the
environment (e.g., temperature, precipitation, abundance of congeners), we
lack studies that evaluate the timing of large numbers of conspecifics
spanning an array of environmental conditions. We quantified the timing of
activity onset (measured as the time when an individual was captured) for
1749 capture events of 716 individual white-footed mice (Peromyscus
leucopus) sampled in 2022 and 2023 at 8 sites in the National Ecological
Observatory Network (NEON) across the upper midwestern and eastern U.S.
Using a mixed-modeling approach, we found strong effects of body mass,
sex, and prior capture experience on timing of activity. Larger
individuals, reproductive females, and individuals with previous capture
experience were all captured earlier in the night. Extrinsic factors also
influenced activity onset, as animals were captured earlier when
temperatures were warmer, later on nights with precipitation, and earlier
as the density of congeners increased. Individual traits interacted with
extrinsic factors to influence the timing of activity onset, as the shift
to earlier capture with increasing capture experience was greatest for
smaller individuals, and only reproductive females were active earlier
(not males or non-reproductive females). Overall, our results indicated a
strong role for individual and environmental factors on the timing of
activity onset, including the role of potential competitors. Our results
provide broad evidence of learning by wild rodents across a large extent
of the species’ geographic range, suggesting that use of experience to
modify behavior is a common feature of animals in natural environments.
Moreover, our results indicate that traits that vary among individuals
(e.g., sex, age) and within individuals (experience) are essential for
predicting changes in individual behavior as well as potential changes in
interactions mediated by individual activity (e.g., competition,
predation, and disease dynamics).