Personality differentially affects individual mate choice decisions in female and male Western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)
- Consistent individual differences in behavioral tendencies (animal personality) can affect individual mate choice decisions. We asked whether personality traits affect male and female mate choice decisions similarly and whether potential personality effects are consistent across different mate choice situations. Using western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) as our study organism, we characterized focal individuals (males and females) twice for boldness, activity, and sociability/shoaling and found high and significant behavioral repeatability. Additionally, each focal individual was tested in two different dichotomous mate choice tests in which it could choose between computer-animated stimulus fish of the opposite sex that differed in body size and activity levels, respectively. Personality had different effects on female and male mate choice: females that were larger than average showed stronger preferences for large-bodied males with increasing levels of boldness/activity (i.e., towards more proactive personality types). Males that were larger than average and had higher shoaling tendencies showed stronger preferences for actively swimming females. Size-dependent effects of personality on the strength of preferences for distinct phenotypes of potential mating partners may reflect effects of age/experience (especially in females) and social dominance (especially in males). Previous studies found evidence for assortative mate choice based on personality types or hypothesized the existence of behavioral syndromes of individuals’ choosiness across mate choice criteria, possibly including other personality traits. Our present study exemplifies that far more complex patterns of personality-dependent mate choice can emerge in natural systems.
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| Author: | Bo-jian ChenORCiD, Kai Liu, Lin-jun Zhou, Guilherme Gomes-Silva, Carolin Sommer-TremboORCiDGND, Martin PlathORCiDGND |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-465615 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197197 |
| ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
| Pubmed Id: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29763435 |
| Parent Title (English): | PLoS One |
| Publisher: | PLoS |
| Place of publication: | Lawrence, Kan. |
| Contributor(s): | Peter Schausberger |
| Document Type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Year of Completion: | 2018 |
| Date of first Publication: | 2018/05/15 |
| Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
| Release Date: | 2018/05/24 |
| Tag: | Animal behavior; Decision making; Fish; Personality; Personality differences; Personality traits; Physiological parameters; Swimming |
| Volume: | 13 |
| Issue: | (5): e0197197 |
| Page Number: | 23 |
| First Page: | 1 |
| Last Page: | 23 |
| Note: | Copyright: © 2018 Chen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| HeBIS-PPN: | 433860901 |
| Institutes: | Biowissenschaften / Institut für Ökologie, Evolution und Diversität |
| Dewey Decimal Classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 59 Tiere (Zoologie) / 590 Tiere (Zoologie) |
| Sammlungen: | Universitätspublikationen |
| Sammlung Biologie / Sondersammelgebiets-Volltexte | |
| Licence (German): |  Creative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0 |
