Personality does not constrain social and behavioural flexibility in African striped mice

摘要

The development and persistence of personality in nature are counterintuitive because, in heterogeneous environments, personality is expected to limit the degree of behavioural flexibility. Recent work has shown that personality and behavioural flexibility might be linked, but their interaction is not well understood and could be elucidated by studying a socially flexible species. Using well-established tests, we measured the personality traits of activity, boldness, exploration and aggressiveness in free-living striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio) in South Africa. Specifically, we tested whether personality changes when individuals change their reproductive tactic, either from group-living philopatrics to solitary-living females and roaming males or from non-breeding philopatrics to breeders. Our results showed that striped mice have personalities: Individuals behaved consistently for all the behavioural traits measured both over time and contexts (breeding to non-breeding season). While most of the personality traits measured remained consistent among tactics, they did not predict which tactic an individual would adopt next, suggesting that environmental conditions rather than personality influence tactic switching. Additionally, we found important differences in the consistency of the behaviours measured between males and females, indicating that sexual selection might play a prominent role in the maintenance of personality in this species. Our study demonstrates that some personality traits can be stable over an entire lifetime even in socially flexible species and that personality does not constrain social flexibility.