Data from: Incubation under climate warming affects learning ability and survival in hatchling lizards

Despite compelling evidence for substantial individual differences in
cognitive performance, it is unclear whether cognitive ability influences
fitness of wild animals. In many animals, environmental stressors
experienced in utero can produce substantial variation in the cognitive
abilities of offspring. In reptiles, incubation temperatures experienced
by embryos can influence hatchling brain function and learning ability.
Under climate warming, the eggs of some lizard species may experience
higher temperatures, which could affect the cognitive abilities of
hatchlings. Whether such changes in cognitive abilities influence the
survival of hatchlings is unknown. To determine whether incubation-induced
changes in spatial learning ability affect hatchling survival, we
incubated velvet gecko, Amalosia lesueurii, eggs using two fluctuating
temperature regimes to mimic current (cold) versus future (hot) nest
temperatures. We measured the spatial learning ability of hatchlings from
each treatment, and released individually marked animals at two field
sites in southeastern Australia. Hatchlings from hot-incubated eggs were
slower learners than hatchlings from cold-incubated eggs. Survival
analyses revealed that hatchlings with higher learning scores had higher
survival than hatchlings with poor learning scores. Our results show that
incubation temperature affects spatial learning ability in hatchling
lizards, and that such changes can influence the survival of hatchlings in
the wild.