Behavioural syndrome between boldness and aggressiveness and link with reproductive success in a wild bird population

Boldness, defined as the behavioural response of individuals when facing a risky situation, is a major personality trait and often phenotypically correlates with other behavioural traits, in particular aggressiveness, exploration behaviour and neophobia. Yet, whether such links result from among-individual correlations, i.e. form behavioural syndromes sensu stricto, is often ignored and whether such syndromes may yield individual fitness benefits, and thus be selected for, remains poorly explored. We measured boldness as the nest defence behaviour against a dummy nest predator in a natural population of a small passerine bird, the collared flycatcher, Ficedula albicollis, and investigated the existence of a behavioural syndrome between boldness and two other behavioural traits, aggressiveness (measured as the agonistic response to competitors) and neophobia (measured as the behavioural response to a novel object in a known environment). Then we assessed the links between this potential ..., The dataset was collected during several field word between 2011 and 2014 at the Island of Gotland (Sweden) where the population of collared flycatcher was monitored since 1980s. We performed univariate and bivariate Bayesian model (MCMCglmm) to identify the presence of a boldness trait and of behavioural syndrome between this latter and two others behavioural traits. Moreover we studied the link between the reproductive success and the aggressiveness-boldness syndrome in order to produce a MS accepted for publication in Animal Behaviour.,大胆性（boldness）被定义为个体面对风险情境时的行为反应，是一类核心人格特质，且常与其他行为性状在表型水平上存在关联，尤其涉及攻击性（aggressiveness）、探索行为（exploration behaviour）与新异恐惧症（neophobia）。然而，这类关联是否源于个体间的相关性——即严格意义上的行为综合征（behavioural syndromes sensu stricto）——却常被忽视；且此类综合征是否能为个体带来适合度收益，进而受到自然选择的青睐，目前仍鲜有深入探究。 本研究以小型雀形目鸟类领姬鹟（collared flycatcher, *Ficedula albicollis*）的自然种群为研究对象，将针对仿真巢捕食者的巢防御行为作为大胆性的测量指标，并探究大胆性与另外两种行为性状——攻击性（以对竞争者的拮抗反应为测量指标）与新异恐惧症（以已知环境中对新奇物体的行为反应为测量指标）之间是否存在行为综合征。 随后本研究评估了该潜在行为关联……本数据集于2011至2014年间在瑞典哥得兰岛（Gotland）的野外工作中采集，该区域自20世纪80年代起便持续对领姬鹟种群开展监测。 本研究采用单变量与双变量贝叶斯模型（MCMCglmm），以验证大胆性性状的存在，以及大胆性与另外两种行为性状间是否存在行为综合征。此外，为了撰写可被《Animal Behaviour》期刊接收发表的学术论文，本研究还探究了繁殖成功率与攻击性-大胆性综合征之间的关联。