title: Intraindividual variability of boldness is repeatable across contexts in a wild lizard.
abstract: Animals do not behave in exactly the same way when repeatedly tested in the same context or situation, even once systematic variation, such as habituation, has been controlled for. This unpredictability is called intraindividual variability (IIV) and has been little studied in animals. Here we investigated how IIV in boldness (estimated by flight initiation distances) changed across two seasons--the dry, non-breeding season and the wet, breeding season--in a wild population of the Namibian rock agama, Agama planiceps. We found significant differences in IIV both between individuals and seasons, and IIV was higher in the wet season, suggesting plasticity in IIV. Further, IIV was highly repeatable (r = 0.61) between seasons and we found strong negative correlations between consistent individual differences in flight initiation distances, i.e. their boldness, and individuals' IIVs. We suggest that to understand personality in animals, researchers should generate a personality 'profile' that includes not only the relative level of a trait (i.e. its personality), but also its plasticity and variability under natural conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Highcock
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Alecia J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Carter
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D005426:Flight, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D007206:Individuality; D008116:Lizards / Q000502:physiology*; D009276:Namibia; D012621:Seasons
references.citation: Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2010 Nov;85(4):935-56
references.pmid: 20569253
references.citation: Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 1989 Feb;64(1):13-33
references.pmid: 2655726
references.citation: Psychol Bull. 2001 Jan;127(1):45-86
references.pmid: 11271756
references.citation: Trends Neurosci. 2006 Aug;29(8):474-80
references.pmid: 16820224
references.citation: Trends Ecol Evol. 2004 Jul;19(7):372-8
references.pmid: 16701288
references.citation: Dev Sci. 2007 Jan;10(1):104-9
references.pmid: 17181707
references.citation: Gerontology. 2004 Jan-Feb;50(1):7-11
references.pmid: 14654720
references.citation: Am Nat. 1999 Jun;153(6):649-659
references.pmid: 29585647
references.citation: Psychol Aging. 2010 Sep;25(3):575-86
references.pmid: 20853965
references.citation: J Stat Softw. 2010;33(1):1-22
references.pmid: 20808728
references.citation: Am Nat. 2013 Nov;182(5):621-9
references.pmid: 24107369
references.citation: Biol Lett. 2013 Aug 28;9(5):20130592
references.pmid: 23985348
references.citation: Neuropsychology. 2000 Oct;14(4):588-98
references.pmid: 11055261
references.citation: Biol Lett. 2010 Apr 23;6(2):167-70
references.pmid: 19864278
references.citation: Psychol Aging. 2009 Dec;24(4):778-91
references.pmid: 20025395