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Dryad

Data from: Variation in defensive and exploratory behaviors across a rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus × viridis) hybrid zone in southwestern New Mexico

Data files

Apr 09, 2025 version files 32.82 MB

Abstract

Studies on individual variability and stability in behavioral types and syndromes—animal personalities—have surged in recent decades. Behavioral ecologists have an expanding appreciation for how personality traits mediate evolutionary processes. Research focusing on the significance of personality in shaping hybridization between lineages, however, is limited. Case studies have shown that hybridization has multiple effects on behavioral syndromes, including both eliminating syndromes present in parental lineages and generating novel syndromes within hybrids. Here, we assessed the behavioral types and syndromes of individuals across a naturally occurring rattlesnake hybrid zone (Crotalus scutulatus × viridis) in southwestern New Mexico. We used behavioral assays to quantify defensive and explorative behaviors, and determined if behavioral types were correlated with spatial and hunting behaviors of free-ranging individuals. We found that C. viridis was more prone to rattle than C. scutulatus during handling tests. Similarly, hybrid individuals (C. scutulatus × viridis) having a higher proportion of their genome derived from C. viridis were also more prone to rattle. Although parental and hybrid snakes exhibited behavioral syndromes in defensiveness and exploratory behaviors, further research is necessary to determine whether these patterns might impact hybrid fitness by creating mismatches between behavioral types and predation pressures under natural conditions.