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Dryad

Personality traits and behaviour vary among invasive, native and hatchery-reared fish

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Dec 05, 2024 version files 15.19 KB

Abstract

Bold behaviour of non-native species is hypothesised to facilitate invasion success, yet extreme boldness in other wild and domesticated animals can be maladaptive. The purpose of this study was to compare individual behaviour among Australian native hatchery-reared (n=33) and wild (n=38) Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii) with globally invasive common carp (Cyprinus carpio; n=30). Three laboratory tests measured individual behaviour: 1) emergence from a shelter; 2) exploration of a novel environment and 3) approaching a predator. Wild invasive carp and hatchery-reared cod were faster and more likely to emerge and explore novel environments when compared to wild Murray cod. The ‘bold-type’ behaviours of hatchery-reared native cod were more like invasive carp than they were to ‘shy-type’ wild conspecifics, yet an important difference was that hatchery-reared cod spent substantially more time near a large predator while carp rapidly escaped.  Our results provide novel evidence of bold-type behavioural syndromes in globally invasive carp and a hatchery-reared Australian native fish but highlight fundamental differences in predator naivety.  The propensity of invasive carp to rapidly explore and enter new environments, along with a fast predator escape response may have been important to their global invasion success, while extreme predator naivety of hatchery-reared Murray cod may increase post-release predation rates in fisheries stocking programs.