Variation in defensive and exploratory behaviors across a rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus × viridis) hybrid zone in southwestern New Mexico

Studies on individual variability and stability in behavioral types and syndromes—animal personalities—have surged in recent decades. Behavioral ecologists have an expanding appreciation for how personality traits mediate evolutionary processes. Research focusing on the significance of personality in shaping hybridization between lineages, however, is limited. Case studies have shown that hybridization has multiple effects on behavioral syndromes, including both eliminating syndromes present in parental lineages and generating novel syndromes within hybrids. Here, we assessed the behavioral types and syndromes of individuals across a naturally occurring rattlesnake hybrid zone (Crotalus scutulatus × viridis) in southwestern New Mexico. We used behavioral assays to quantify defensive and explorative behaviors, and determined if behavioral types were correlated with spatial and hunting behaviors of free-ranging individuals. We found that C. viridis was more prone to rattle than C. scutula..., , , # Variation in defensive and exploratory behaviors across a rattlesnake (*Crotalus scutulatus* × *viridis*) hybrid zone in southwestern New Mexico

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5tb2rbpbd](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5tb2rbpbd)

This dataset includes the final VCF alignment file used for hybrid index analysis, their defensive behaviors, and exploratory behaviors assayed in a laboratory setting. These data were used to quantify the behavioral types and syndromes of snakes dispersed across a hybrid zone between Mojave (*Crotalus scutulatus*) and Prairie (*C. viridis*) Rattlesnakes. The VCF alignment data were collected via raw sequence reads from DNA extractions from blood stored in lysis buffer. Behavioral data were calculated from laboratory-based assays. Prairie Rattlesnakes were more prone to rattle than Mojave Rattlesnakes during the handling tests and there was a positive relationship between this tendency and the amount of Prairie Rattlesnake derived genome in hybrid rattlesnake...,