Fitness, risk taking, and spatial behavior covary with boldness in experimental vole populations

Individuals of a population may vary along a pace-of-life syndrome from highly fecund, short-lived, bold, dispersive ‘fast’ types at one end of the spectrum to less fecund, long-lived, shy, plastic ‘slow’ types at the other end. Risk-taking behaviour might mediate the underlying life-history trade-off but empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis is still ambiguous. Using experimentally created populations of common voles (Microtus arvalis) - a species with distinct seasonal life-history trajectories - we aimed to test whether individual differences in boldness behaviour co-vary with risk-taking, space use, and fitness. We quantified risk taking, space use (via automated tracking), survival and reproductive success (via genetic parentage analysis) in 8 to 14 experimental, mixed-sex populations of 113 common voles of known boldness type in large grassland enclosures over a significant part of their adult life span and two reproductive events. Populations were assorted to contain extr..., Our study had three steps (Table 1): we (a) captured individuals from free ranging populations, and selected the extreme boldness types to compose experimental populations, (b) released experimental populations of both sexes into near-natural large outdoor enclosures and recorded space use and risk taking with indirect telemetry methods (ART and RFID) over two reproductive events (5-6 weeks), (c) recaptured individuals from outdoor enclosures to monitor survival and estimate reproductive success based on parentage analysis.
All individuals were wild captured. Boldness tests were assessed repeatedly in standard test for animal personality in the laboratory before individuals were sorted into experimental populations and brought outside into the enclosures., The data set is structured in two separate files. The file \"DataAnimals\" contains more detailed information on the personality tests of individuals, like single measured variables, while in the \"Data\" file data is shown that is the basis of the statistical analysis presented in the manuscript. Cells with NA represent missing values for the respected variable for an individual. This mostly refers to the data on visits to the riskier area of the enclosure which could only be obtained for a subset of individuals.

种群内的个体可沿生活史综合症（pace-of-life syndrome）轴呈现连续变异：一端为繁殖力强、寿命短、胆大、扩散性强的"快节奏"型个体，另一端则为繁殖力较低、寿命更长、羞怯且具有可塑性的"慢节奏"型个体。冒险行为或许介导了其背后的生活史权衡，但支持这一假说的实证证据仍不明确。本研究以具有显著季节性生活史轨迹的普通田鼠（Microtus arvalis）实验种群为对象，旨在验证胆大行为的个体差异是否与冒险行为、空间利用及适合度存在协变关系。我们在大型草地围栏中，针对113只已知胆大类型的普通田鼠，组建8至14个混合性别实验种群，在其成年寿命的重要阶段及两次繁殖事件中，量化了个体的冒险行为、空间利用（通过自动追踪技术）、存活情况与繁殖成功率（通过遗传亲权分析）。种群被组建以包含极[...]，本研究分为三个阶段（见表1）：(a) 从自由活动的野生种群中捕获个体，筛选极端胆大类型以组建实验种群；(b) 将混合性别的实验种群释放至近自然的大型户外围栏中，采用间接遥测方法（ART与RFID）记录两次繁殖事件（持续5-6周）期间的空间利用与冒险行为；(c) 从户外围栏中重捕个体，以监测存活情况，并基于亲权分析估算繁殖成功率。所有个体均为野生捕获。在将个体归类至实验种群并转移至围栏前，我们已在实验室通过标准化动物性格测试重复评估了其胆大程度。本数据集分为两个独立文件。其中"DataAnimals"文件包含个体性格测试的详细信息，如单次测量变量；而"Data"文件则包含本研究手稿中统计分析所用的基础数据。带有NA的单元格代表对应个体某一变量的缺失值，这主要涉及围栏中高风险区域访问次数的数据——此类数据仅能从部分个体中获取。