Range expansion during recolonisation: what does animal personality have to do with it?

At the edge of an ongoing expansion, pioneer individuals encounter novel ecological and evolutionary pressures that may not be experienced by conspecifics settled in long-colonised areas. Consistent behavioural differences among conspecifics (animal personality) may be important determinants of individuals’ successful colonisation of novel environments and range expansion. By enhancing an individual's ability to find food and shelter as well as increasing its capacity to navigate novel environments, behavioural traits such as exploration and risk-taking are thus expected to be more highly expressed in populations undergoing expansion than in established populations.
We investigated among-individual variation in behaviours associated to risk-taking and exploratory tendencies in populations of small mammals during different stages of the colonisation process. Using a standardized behavioural test in the field, we quantified exploration and boldness of striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius..., , # Range expansion during recolonisation: what does animal personality have to do with it?

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.tdz08kq9q](10.5061/dryad.tdz08kq9q)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset includes behavioural data from two small mammal species (striped field mice *Apodemus agrarius* and bank voles *Myodes glareolus*) collected during field experiments in Slovakia and Germany. The study assesses personality traits (exploration and boldness) across populations at different stages of range colonisation.

### Files and variables

#### File: Supplementary\_material\_-\_Data.xls

**Description:** TABLE S3- Data file containing measurements from the Open Field Test.

##### Variables 

* Animal ID- Unique individual identity
* Region- Region where the individual was captured and tested on site (Germany/Slovakia)
* Stage- Stage of expansion of the population (expanding/settled)
* Habitat type- Type of habitat where the trapping/testing occurred (rural/urban)
* Si...,