@article{MazzaGuenther2021, author = {Mazza, Valeria and G{\"u}nther, Anja}, title = {City mice and country mice}, series = {Animal behaviour}, volume = {172}, journal = {Animal behaviour}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0003-3472}, doi = {10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.12.007}, pages = {197 -- 210}, year = {2021}, abstract = {The ability to produce innovative behaviour is a key determinant in the successful coping with environmental challenges and changes. The expansion of human-altered environments presents wildlife with multiple novel situations in which innovativeness could be beneficial. A better understanding of the drivers of within-species variation in innovation propensity and its consequences will provide insights into the traits enabling animals to thrive in the face of human-induced rapid environmental change. We compared problem-solving performance of 31 striped field mice, Apodemus agrarius, originating from rural or urban environments in a battery of eight foraging extraction tasks. We tested whether differences in problem-solving performance were mediated by the extent and duration of the animal's exploration of the experimental set-ups, the time required to solve the tasks, and their persistence. In addition, we tested the influence of the diversity of motor responses, as well as of behavioural traits boldness and activity on problem-solving performance. Urban individuals were better problem solvers despite rural individuals approaching faster and interacting longer with the test set-ups. Participation rates and time required to solve a task did not differ between rural and urban individuals. However, in case of failure to solve a task, rural mice were more persistent. The best predictors of solving success, aside from the area of origin, were the time spent exploring the set-ups and boldness, while activity and diversity of motor responses did not explain it. Problem-solving ability could thus be a contributing factor to the successful coping with the rapid and recent expansion of human-altered environments.}, language = {en} } @misc{KowalskiGrimmHerdeetal.2019, author = {Kowalski, Gabriele Joanna and Grimm, Volker and Herde, Antje and Guenther, Anja and Eccard, Jana}, title = {Does Animal Personality Affect Movement in Habitat Corridors?}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {747}, issn = {1866-8372}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43577}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-435770}, pages = {17}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Animal personality may affect an animal's mobility in a given landscape, influencing its propensity to take risks in an unknown environment. We investigated the mobility of translocated common voles in two corridor systems 60 m in length and differing in width (1 m and 3 m). Voles were behaviorally phenotyped in repeated open field and barrier tests. Observed behavioral traits were highly repeatable and described by a continuous personality score. Subsequently, animals were tracked via an automated very high frequency (VHF) telemetry radio tracking system to monitor their movement patterns in the corridor system. Although personality did not explain movement patterns, corridor width determined the amount of time spent in the habitat corridor. Voles in the narrow corridor system entered the corridor faster and spent less time in the corridor than animals in the wide corridor. Thus, landscape features seem to affect movement patterns more strongly than personality. Meanwhile, site characteristics, such as corridor width, could prove to be highly important when designing corridors for conservation, with narrow corridors facilitating faster movement through landscapes than wider corridors.}, language = {en} } @article{KowalskiGrimmHerdeetal.2019, author = {Kowalski, Gabriele Joanna and Grimm, Volker and Herde, Antje and Guenther, Anja and Eccard, Jana}, title = {Does Animal Personality Affect Movement in Habitat Corridors?}, series = {Animals}, volume = {9}, journal = {Animals}, number = {6}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Basel}, issn = {2076-2615}, doi = {10.3390/ani9060291}, pages = {17}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Animal personality may affect an animal's mobility in a given landscape, influencing its propensity to take risks in an unknown environment. We investigated the mobility of translocated common voles in two corridor systems 60 m in length and differing in width (1 m and 3 m). Voles were behaviorally phenotyped in repeated open field and barrier tests. Observed behavioral traits were highly repeatable and described by a continuous personality score. Subsequently, animals were tracked via an automated very high frequency (VHF) telemetry radio tracking system to monitor their movement patterns in the corridor system. Although personality did not explain movement patterns, corridor width determined the amount of time spent in the habitat corridor. Voles in the narrow corridor system entered the corridor faster and spent less time in the corridor than animals in the wide corridor. Thus, landscape features seem to affect movement patterns more strongly than personality. Meanwhile, site characteristics, such as corridor width, could prove to be highly important when designing corridors for conservation, with narrow corridors facilitating faster movement through landscapes than wider corridors.}, language = {en} } @article{MazzaEccardZaccaronietal.2018, author = {Mazza, Valeria and Eccard, Jana and Zaccaroni, Marco and Jacob, Jens and Dammhahn, Melanie}, title = {The fast and the flexible}, series = {Animal behaviour}, volume = {137}, journal = {Animal behaviour}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {London}, issn = {0003-3472}, doi = {10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.01.011}, pages = {119 -- 132}, year = {2018}, language = {en} } @article{DammhahnLandryCuerrierRealeetal.2017, author = {Dammhahn, Melanie and Landry-Cuerrier, Manuelle and Reale, Denis and Garant, Dany and Humphries, Murray M.}, title = {Individual variation in energy-saving heterothermy affects survival and reproductive success}, series = {Functional ecology : an official journal of the British Ecological Society}, volume = {31}, journal = {Functional ecology : an official journal of the British Ecological Society}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {0269-8463}, doi = {10.1111/1365-2435.12797}, pages = {866 -- 875}, year = {2017}, abstract = {1. Given fundamental energetic trade-offs among growth, maintenance and reproduction, individual differences in energy saving should have consequences for survival and reproductive success. Many endotherms use periodic heterothermy to reduce energy and water requirements and individual variation in heterothermy should have fitness consequences. However, attempts to disentangle individual- and population-level variation in heterothermy are scarce. 2. Here, we quantified patterns of heterothermy of 55 free-ranging eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus), food-hoarding hibernators. Over five hibernation periods, we obtained a total of 7108 daily individual heterothermy indices (median: 118 per individual). 3. Based on an individual reaction norm approach, we found that the use of heterothermy was repeatable and varied among individuals of the same population under similar environmental conditions. This among-individual variation had consequences for winter survival and reproductive success. Individuals using less heterothermy at the beginning of the winter had decreased survival in resource-rich but not in resource-poor years and higher reproductive success in the subsequent breeding season. 4. These results support the hypothesis that fluctuating selection maintains heterothermic diversity and suggest that individualized ecophysiology can contribute to a more thorough understanding of the evolution of energy-saving strategies in endotherms.}, language = {en} }