Range expansion during recolonisation: what does animal personality have to do with it?
Data files
Jun 25, 2025 version files 116.59 MB
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README.md
3.43 KB
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Supplementary_material__2.xlsx
13.88 KB
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Supplementary_material_-_Data.xls
67.58 KB
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Supplementary_Video.wmv
116.50 MB
Abstract
At the edge of an ongoing expansion, pioneer individuals encounter novel ecological and evolutionary pressures that may not be experienced by conspecifics settled in long-colonised areas. Consistent behavioural differences among conspecifics (animal personality) may be important determinants of individuals’ successful colonisation of novel environments and range expansion. By enhancing an individual's ability to find food and shelter as well as increasing its capacity to navigate novel environments, behavioural traits such as exploration and risk-taking are thus expected to be more highly expressed in populations undergoing expansion than in established populations.
We investigated among-individual variation in behaviours associated to risk-taking and exploratory tendencies in populations of small mammals during different stages of the colonisation process. Using a standardized behavioural test in the field, we quantified exploration and boldness of striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius, N=95) from six subpopulations from Germany, where they are established, and in Slovakia, where a recolonisation of the area is currently in progress, and in control species bank voles (Myodes glareolus, N=76) that shared the same habitats but were long-established at all sites.
Striped field mice in the expanding populations were significantly slower in exploring the open field arena, while showing comparable levels of risk taking compared to conspecifics from established populations. No difference in behaviour was detected between the populations of bank voles. Our results suggest that a slow exploration strategy might play an advantageous role in expansion processes of small mammal populations.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.tdz08kq9q
Description of the data and file structure
This dataset includes behavioural data from two small mammal species (striped field mice Apodemus agrarius and bank voles Myodes glareolus) collected during field experiments in Slovakia and Germany. The study assesses personality traits (exploration and boldness) across populations at different stages of range colonisation.
Files and variables
File: Supplementary_material_-_Data.xls
Description: TABLE S3- Data file containing measurements from the Open Field Test.
Variables
- Animal ID- Unique individual identity
- Region- Region where the individual was captured and tested on site (Germany/Slovakia)
- Stage- Stage of expansion of the population (expanding/settled)
- Habitat type- Type of habitat where the trapping/testing occurred (rural/urban)
- Site- Trapping site ID
- Species- Species of the animal (AAG=striped field mouse, Apodemus agrarius; CGL = bank vole, C. glareolus)
- Test round- Number of test round
- Latency to emerge- Latency to emerge from the dark shelter into the arena (s)
- Latency to OF centre- Latency to reach the central part of the open field arena (s)
File: Supplementary_Video.mp4
Description: Example video of behavioural test protocol
File: Supplementary_material__2.xlsx
Description:
REPEATABILITY (TABLE S1) - Repeatability estimates (R), corresponding standard error (SE), and 95% confidence intervals across region of origin (Germany vs Slovakia) for 95 individual striped field mice - SFM (Apodemus agrarius) and 76 individual bank voles - BV (Myodes glareolus), combined and separated for region of origin. For statistically significant effects P-values are highlighted in bold font.
MODELS (TABLE S2) - Model results for latency to emerge (in seconds) from the dark shelter and exploration activity in relation to region (Germany vs Slovakia), and test round for 95 individual striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius) and 76 individual bank voles (Myodes glareolus). Rm reports the marginal R² value based on the fixed factors, Rc the conditional R² value including the study site as a random factor. Reference levels are given in (). For statistically significant effects P-values are highlighted in bold font.
Code/software
All data analyses were conducted using R version 3.2.3 (R Core Team, 2015), an open-source software environment for statistical computing and graphics (https://www.r-project.org/).
The following R packages were used:
rptR – for calculating repeatability of behavioural traits using parametric bootstrapping and permutations (Nakagawa and Schielzeth 2010; Stoffel et al. 2017).
lme4 – for fitting restricted maximum-likelihood linear mixed-effects models (Bates et al. 2014).
stats – for non-parametric testing (e.g. Mann-Whitney-U) and other standard statistical functions included in base R.
No custom code is required to view or interpret the dataset. The dataset can be opened in spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel.
Access information
This dataset is original and has not been deposited elsewhere. All data were generated by the authors as part of the research project described in the associated publication.