Personality and behavioral syndromes in two species of fruit bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae)

Abstract

Personality indicates consistency in individual behavioral responses across different contexts, and different personality traits may be correlated in behavioral syndromes. Studies on personality have important consequences for conservation ecology and, despite the ecological relevance of fruit bats, rare studies have tested the existence of personality and behavior syndromes in this group. In this context, this study aims to test whether the Neotropical fruit bats Artibeus lituratus and Carollia perspicillata present (1) individual repeatability (i.e. personality) related to the behaviors: activity, aggressiveness and boldness and (2) correlation between these personality axes, constituting behavioral syndromes. For each species, 27 adult males were captured and immediately placed in cloth bags individually, and we measured aggressiveness as the time they struggled in the bag within a 180-second interval. Bats were then kept in individual cages in a climate-controlled room for 48-h, after which we filmed them for 30 min in a flight tent as an activity test. In the boldness test, we quantified the latency to each animal to start feeding in front of an observer, assuming that bolder individuals had lower latency to feed. All tests were repeated after 48-h to analyze repeatability. We found high individual repeatability of aggressiveness, activity and boldness for both species, but different behavioral syndromes for each of them. For C. perspicillata, the three behaviors were correlated to each other, with the most aggressive individuals being bolder and more active. For A. lituratus, aggressiveness and boldness were also positively correlated, but activity did not correlate with the other two behaviors. Considering these different syndromes, our results suggest that C. perspicillata has less variation in behavioral profiles than A. lituratus probably as a result of species-specific selective pressures. The existence of behavioral syndromes in these frugivorous bats contributes to understanding the importance of individual variation on the ecological functions provided by seed dispersers.