Meeting Abstract
Species are introduced to new environments on a daily basis, but only about 10% do well enough to become an invasive species. Invasive species have successfully navigated the four main steps of invasion: introduction, spread, establishment, and population growth to a detrimental density. These four steps require a unique suite of life history traits to succeed and nowhere is this more apparent than in behavior. When applied across environmental contexts, species-typical behaviors can form a species-wide behavioral syndrome, or suites of correlated behaviors reflecting between-individual behavioral consistency. A “bold” behavioral syndrome has been linked with a higher dispersal potential, a key component of both the spread and establishment steps of the invasion process. Using both a shelter latency and a maze task, we tested species-wide boldness and exploratory drive in a known invasive fish, the goldfish, with comparisons to a noninvasive fish, the giant danio. Within species analysis showed behavioral consistency across environmental contexts for shelter latency, but between species analysis did not show a significant difference due to high individual variation. Total distance traveled in the open field was similar between species, but was significantly different in the maze task (p<0.05). Goldfish also spent significantly more time investigating the novel areas of a complex chambered maze task prior to entering a darkened shelter “reward” area. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that invasive species have a higher degree of boldness and exploratory drive than species that are not invasive.
