State-behaviour feedbacks between boldness and food intake shape escape responses in fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus).

ABSTRACT: Consistent differences in intrinsic state, amplified through state-dependent behaviour, could explain the ubiquity of animal personality variation. Boldness is often positively associated with a high metabolism and food intake. Even though a high food consumption is known to compromise oxygen-demanding activities, the influence of food intake on anti-predator escape responses has rarely been considered. By conducting experiments with three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in a setup with real-time tracking and a decoy heron predator, we show that bolder fish benefited from a higher food intake than shy fish, and reacted faster to a predator attack when food intake was the same before being attacked. However, a higher food intake slowed down the escape responses. These results s

SUBMITTER: Planas-Sitja I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11825722 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature