Mating system as a possible driver of behavioral diversity in Peromyscus

• Published in: Behavioral ecology and sociobiology 2017-11, Vol.71 (11), p.1-13, Article 163
• Main Authors: Wey, Tina W., Vrana, Paul B., Mabry, Karen E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptive systems; Animal behavior; Animal Ecology; Behavioral Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Comparative studies; Correlation; Ecological monitoring; Evolution; Gender aspects; Hypotheses; Life history; Life prediction; Life Sciences; Males; Mating; Mice; Monogamy; Original Article; Peromyscus; Sex differentiation; Sexual behavior; Sexual dimorphism; Species; Zoology
• ISSN: 0340-5443; 1432-0762
• DOI: 10.1007/s00265-017-2392-3

Identifying mechanisms underlying behavioral variation is important for understanding ecological and evolutionary processes. Comparative studies can help test hypotheses about the adaptive value of behaviors. Pace of life history and mating systems are broad factors hypothesized to drive species differences in behaviors. We tested these hypotheses using several Peromyscus species from lab stocks that varied in predicted life history and level of monogamy. We predicted that species with faster life histories would be more bold, active, and neophilic, and that these traits would also be positively correlated at the individual level. We further predicted that there would be greater sex differences in behaviors in non-monogamous, more sexually dimorphic species and that sociability would be more highly correlated with other behavioral traits in monogamous than in non-monogamous species. Counter to predictions, we found that larger stocks (with slower paces of life history) tended to be bolder, and that stock size was not associated with differences in activity, neophilia, or sociability. There was greater sexual differentiation in non-monogamous species in sociability, but not in other behaviors. Monogamous species were generally more sociable, and this was especially pronounced in male mice. Monogamous species showed a positive association between boldness and activity, while nonmonogamous species showed a positive association between boldness and neophilia. A negative association between neophilia and sociability was stronger in species predicted to be monogamous. Thus, the pace-of-lifehistory syndrome hypothesis was not supported in this study, but mating system differences could help drive behavioral diversity.