Springer (part of Springer Nature), Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 7(66), p. 1087-1094
DOI: 10.1007/s00265-012-1359-7
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Consistent individual variation in behaviour has been termed 'animal personality' and has been identified across a range of behavioural contexts including aggression, boldness in response to a threatening stimulus and explora-tion. When behaviours are correlated across multiple func-tional behavioural categories or 'contexts', 'behavioural syndromes' are said to be present. It is possible, however, that behavioural syndromes may also show consistencies. Here we investigated the presence of behavioural syn-dromes linking startle responses, exploration and aggression in hermit crabs and assessed their stability across two sit-uations (low versus high predation risk). Correlation analy-ses detected behavioural syndromes between startle responses, a measure of 'boldness', and the latency to in-vestigate a novel object, as well as the latency to attack an opponent in an aggressive context. The startle response– investigation and startle response–aggression syndromes were stable between situations, whilst there was a lack of relationship between investigation and aggression in each situation. Here we propose that these consistent individual differences in the expression of behavioural syndromes re-veal the presence of animal personality, manifesting in not just one, but a suite of interacting traits.