Personality, plasticity, and resource defense

Abstract

In many animal taxa, behavior varies both among individuals (animal “personalities”) and within individuals (“plasticity”). Personality and plasticity may co-vary if individuals differ in responsiveness to changes in their environment (“I × E” interaction). The nature and fitness implications of individual differences in behavioral plasticity in the wild are poorly understood. In territorial animals, fitness depends fundamentally on resource-defense behavior—their response to various threats from conspecific competitors. Such systems thus offer an ideal opportunity to investigate individual differences in behavioral plasticity. We used male superb fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus) to test for in..