Meeting Abstract

127.6  Tuesday, Jan. 7 14:45  Behavioral type – environment correlations in three-spined stickleback PEARISH, S.*; BELL, A.M.; Univ. of Illinois, Urbana; Univ. of Illinois, Urbana pearish1@illinois.edu

There is growing evidence for consistent individual differences in behavior. It is likely that different behavioral types of individuals within populations are nonrandomly distributed in the environment, creating behavioral type-environment correlations. Relatively timid individuals might be more likely to occur in relatively safe microhabitats, for example. However we know little about the prevalence of behavioral-type environment correlations, the mechanisms that generate them or their ecological and evolutionary consequences. Here I present evidence for behavioral type-environment correlations in a wild population of three-spined stickleback. Relatively exploratory sticklebacks were more likely to occur in open microhabitats in the field, and relatively bold sticklebacks that quickly emerged from a refuge were more likely to occur in shoals with other sticklebacks rather than by themselves. I discuss the stability of behavioral types and environment use in sticklebacks, mechanisms that might generate the observed behavioral-type environment correlations and present the results of a mark-recapture experiment.