title: Evolutionary dynamics of fearfulness and boldness.
abstract: A negative relationship between reproductive effort and survival is consistent with life-history. Evolutionary dynamics and evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) for the trade-off between survival and reproduction are investigated using a simple model with two phenotypes, fearfulness and boldness. The dynamical stability of the pure strategy model and analysis of ESS conditions reveal that: (i) the simple coexistence of fearfulness and boldness is impossible; (ii) a small population size is favorable to fearfulness, but a large population size is favorable to boldness, i.e., neither fearfulness, nor boldness is always favored by natural selection; and (iii) the dynamics of population density is crucial for a proper understanding of the strategy dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Boyu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yuehua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tao
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005239:Fear; D005716:Game Theory; D008957:Models, Genetic; D011156:Population Density; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D012098:Reproduction / Q000235:genetics