Meeting Abstract

127.7  Tuesday, Jan. 7 15:00  The maintenance of risky personalities in yellow-bellied marmots PETELLE, M/B*; BLUMSTEIN, D/T; Univ. of California, Los Angeles mpetelle@ucla.edu

Animals vary in the risks they take and this may be a personality trait. There are three hypotheses for the maintenance of risky personality traits. First, the residual reproductive value hypothesis uses the asset protection principle to suggest that younger individuals are more cautious than older individuals because of their potential future reproduction. Second, the growth-mortality tradeoff hypothesis states that individuals that grow faster will be more risk-prone to maintain that growth, but will incur a higher mortality as a tradeoff. Third, the state-dependent safety hypothesis suggests that individuals with more energy reserves, or better body condition, will be able to cope with risky situations and maintains this condition through positive-feedback loops. We capitalized on a long-term study of yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) to evaluate these alternative hypotheses. We conducted 8990 trapping events (to measure docility) on 1201 individuals and 614 open-field and mirror image stimulation trials (to measure activity/exploration) on 226 individuals. Our results provide some support for state-dependent safety but oppose the residual reproductive value hypothesis. We found no evidence for growth-mortality tradeoffs. Thus, individuals in better body condition are better able to cope with the potential stresses. Additionally, older individuals were more risk-averse than younger individuals, suggesting that older individuals potentially value their remaining reproduction more than younger individuals.