Journal
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 365, Issue 1560, Pages 4077-4088Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0182
Keywords
personality; behavioural syndrome; parasitism; phenotypic plasticity; correlational selection; population differentiation
Categories
Funding
- UK Natural Environment Research Council [NE/F019440/1]
- Max Planck Society (MPG)
- NERC [NE/F019440/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/F019440/1] Funding Source: researchfish
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The ecological factors responsible for the evolution of individual differences in animal personality (consistent individual differences in the same behaviour across time and contexts) are currently the subject of intense debate. A limited number of ecological factors have been investigated to date, with most attention focusing on the roles of resource competition and predation. We suggest here that parasitism may play a potentially important, but largely overlooked, role in the evolution of animal personalities. We identify two major routes by which parasites might influence the evolution of animal personality. First, because the risk of acquiring parasites can be influenced by an individual's behavioural type, local parasite regimes may impose selection on personality traits and behavioural syndromes (correlations between personality traits). Second, because parasite infections have consequences for aspects of host 'state', parasites might induce the evolution of individual differences in certain types of host behaviour in populations with endemic infections. Also, because infection often leads to specific changes in axes of personality, parasite infections have the potential to decouple behavioural syndromes. Host-parasite systems therefore provide researchers with valuable tools to study personality variation and behavioural syndromes from a proximate and ultimate perspective.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available