10.5061/DRYAD.SQV9S4N0G
Horváth, Gergely
0000-0002-0485-333X
Eötvös Loránd University
Rodríguez-Ruiz, Gonzalo
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales
Martín, José
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales
López, Pilar
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales
Herczeg, Gábor
Eötvös Loránd University
Maternal diet affects juvenile Carpetan rock lizard performance and personality
Dryad
dataset
2020
2020-11-19T00:00:00Z
2020-11-19T00:00:00Z
en
30039 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Differences in both stable and labile state variables are known to affect
the emergence and maintenance of consistent inter-individual behavioural
variation (animal personality or behavioural syndrome), especially when
experienced early in life. Variation in environmental conditions
experienced by gestating mothers (viz. non-genetic maternal effects) are
known to have significant impact on offspring condition and behaviour,
yet, their effect on behavioural consistency is not clear. Here, by
applying an orthogonal experimental design, we aimed to study if increased
vitamin D3 content in maternal diet during gestation (vitamin-supplemented
vs. vitamin control treatments) combined with corticosterone treatment
(corticosterone-treated vs. corticosterone control treatments) applied on
freshly hatched juveniles had an effect on individual state and
behavioural consistency of juvenile Carpetan rock lizards (Iberolacerta
cyreni). We tested the effect of our treatments on (i) climbing speed and
the following levels of behavioural variation: (ii) strength of animal
personality (behavioural repeatability), (iii) behavioural type
(individual mean behaviour) and (iv) behavioural predictability
(within-individual behavioural variation unrelated to environmental
change). We found higher locomotor performance of juveniles from the
vitamin-supplemented group (42.4% increase), irrespective of
corticosterone treatment. While activity personality was present in all
treatments, shelter use personality was present only in the
vitamin-supplemented × corticosterone-treated treatment and risk-taking
personality was present in corticosterone control treatments. Contrary to
our expectations, behavioural type was not affected by our treatments,
indicating that individual quality can affect behavioural strategies
without affecting group-level mean behaviour. Behavioural predictability
decreased in individuals with low climbing speed, which could be
interpreted as a form of anti-predator strategy. Our results clearly
demonstrate that maternal diet and corticosterone treatment have the
potential to induce or hamper between-individual variation in different
components of boldness, often in interactions.