Data from: Sex differences in the predictability of risk-taking behaviour

Recent research has found that individuals often vary in how consistently
they express their behaviour over time (i.e. behavioural predictability)
and suggested that these individual differences may be heritable. However,
little is known about the intrinsic factors that drive variation in the
predictability of behaviour. Indeed, whether variation in behavioural
predictability is sex-specific is not clear. This is important, as
behavioural predictability has been associated with vulnerability to
predation, suggesting that the predictability of behavioural traits may
have key fitness implications. We investigated whether male and female
eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) differed in the predictability
of their risk-taking behaviour. Specifically, over a total of 954
behavioural trials, we repeatedly measured risk-taking behaviour with
three commonly used assays—refuge-use, thigmotaxis, and foraging latency.
We predicted that there would be consistent sex differences in both
mean-level risk-taking behaviour and behavioural predictability across the
assays. We found that risk-taking behaviour was repeatable within each
assay, and that some individuals were consistently bolder than others
across all three assays. There were also consistent sex differences in
mean-level risk-taking behaviour, with males being bolder across all three
assays compared to females. In contrast, both the magnitude and direction
of sex differences in behavioural predictability were assay specific.
Taken together, these results highlight that behavioural predictability
may be independent from underlying mean-level behavioural traits and
suggest that males and females may differentially adjust the consistency
of their risk-taking behaviour in response to subtle changes in
environmental conditions.