Senescence rates and late adulthood reproductive success are strongly influenced by personality in a long lived seabird

Studies are increasingly demonstrating that individuals differ in their rate of ageing, and this is postulated to emerge from a trade-off between current and future reproduction. Recent theory predicts a correlation between individual personality and life-history strategy, and from this comes the prediction that personality may predict the intensity of senescence. Here we show that boldness correlates with reproductive success and foraging behaviour in wandering albatrosses, with strong sex-specific differences. Shy males show a strong decline in reproductive performance with age, and bold females have lower reproductive success in later adulthood. In both sexes, bolder birds have longer foraging trips and gain more mass per trip as they get older. However, the benefit of this behaviour appears to differ between the sexes, such that it is only matched by high reproductive success in males. Together our results suggest that personality linked foraging adaptations with age are strongly se...

越来越多的研究证实，不同个体的衰老速率存在差异，该现象被认为源于当前繁殖与未来繁殖之间的权衡。近期理论研究预测，个体性格与生活史策略（life-history strategy）之间存在相关性，据此可进一步推导：性格或可预测衰老（senescence）的强度。本研究以漂泊信天翁（wandering albatrosses）为研究对象，结果显示大胆性（boldness）与其繁殖成功率及觅食行为存在显著关联，且该关联存在强烈的性别特异性差异。随着年龄增长，性格腼腆的雄性个体的繁殖表现会出现显著衰退，而性格大胆的雌性个体在成年后期的繁殖成功率更低。在两性个体中，随着年龄增长，更大胆的信天翁的觅食航程更长，且单次觅食获得的体质量增益更多。但该行为带来的适应性收益在两性间存在显著差异：仅在雄性个体中，此类行为收益与高繁殖成功率相匹配。综上，本研究结果表明，与性格相关的、随年龄变化的觅食适应性具有极强的...