Links between personality, early natal nutrition and survival of a threatened bird

Abstract

There is growing recognition that variation in animal personality traits can influence survival and reproduction rates, and consequently may be important for wildlife population dynamics. Despite this, the integration of personality research into conservation has remained uncommon. Alongside the establishment of personality as an important source of individual variation has come an increasing interest in factors affecting the development of personality. Recent work indicates the early environment, including natal nutrition, may play a stronger role in the development of personality than previously thought. In this study, we investigated the importance of three personality metrics (activity, boldness and acclimation time) for estimating survival of a threatened species, the hihi ( Notiomystis cincta ), and evaluated the influence of early natal nutrition on those metrics. Our results showed that boldness (as measured from a one-off cage test) had a positive effect on the probability of juvenile hihi surviving to adulthood. There was also a tendency for juveniles that received carotenoid supplementation in the nest to be bolder than those that did not, suggesting that the early environment had some influence on the expression of boldness in juvenile hihi. Linking the development of personality traits with ultimate effects on vital rates may benefit conservation management, as it could enable developmentally targeted management interventions. To our knowledge, this study is the first to identify potential linkages between early natal nutrition, personality and fitness in a wild-living population. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Linking behaviour to dynamics of populations and communities: application of novel approaches in behavioural ecology to conservation’.