DOI: 10.5061/dryad.cc2fqz6cs
title: Boldness suppresses hoarding behavior in food hoarding season and reduces over-wintering survival in a social rodent

description: The "pace-of-life" syndrome (POLS) framework can encompass
 multiple personality axes that drive important functional behaviours
 (e.g., foraging behaviour) and that co-vary with multiple life history
 traits. Food hoarding is an adaptive behaviour important for an
 animal's adaptation to seasonal fluctuations in food availability.
 However, the empirical evidence for the relationships between animal
 personality and hoarding behaviour remains unclear, including its fitness
 consequences in the POLS framework. In this study, the Mongolian gerbil
 (Meriones unguiculatus), a social rodent, was used as a model system to
 investigate how boldness or shyness is associated with food hoarding
 strategies in the food hoarding season and overwinter survival or
 reproduction at individual and group levels. The results of this study
 showed that compared to shy gerbils, bold gerbils had a lower effort
 foraging strategy during the food hoarding season and exhibited lower
 overwinter survival, but bold–shy personality differences had no effect on
 overwinter reproduction. These findings suggest that the personality of
 the animal is a key factor that affects the foraging strategy during the
 food hoarding season in Mongolian gerbils. Personality may be related to
 energy states or the reaction to environmental change (e.g., predation
 risk, food availability) in bold or shy social animals. These results
 reflect animal life history trade-offs between "current versus future
 reproduction" and "reproduction versus self-maintenance",
 thereby helping Mongolian gerbils adapt to seasonal fluctuations in their
 living environment.
description: # Boldness suppresses hoarding behavior in food hoarding season and
 reduces over-wintering survival in a social rodent
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cc2fqz6cs](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cc2fqz6cs) This dataset contains four CSV files, including: 1. **Boldness_data**: a dataset of the elevated-plus maze measurement. All gerbils completed the EPM test twice to assess the repeatability of the bold-shy personality results, and the tests were separated by 1 week. 2. **individual_food_horading_data**: a dataset of the individuals' food-hoarding behavior. 3. **group_food_horading_data**: a dataset of the group's food-hoarding behavior. 4. **survival_and_reproduction_data**: a dataset of the over-wintering survival and reproduction at individual and group levels. 5. **MCMCglmm approach of food hoarding behaviour**: the code of MCMCglmm models for individual foraging behaviour and group foraging behaviour. ##### Description of the data and file structure All datasets correspond to data collected from laboratory and 8 semi-nature chambers in Taipusi Qi Field Research Station in Inner Mongolia, China (41°58′N, 115°17′E; 1500 m elevation). \--Column Names--- Dataset 1 (Boldness_data) * Individual Mongolian gerbils identified using "ID" * Measurement times are identified as "Times" * Entries in the open arms are identified as "Entries" * Time spent (s) in the open arms are identified as "Time sepnt" * Distance moved (mm) in the open arms are identified as "Moving distance" * Ratio of open arm entries to the closed arm entries are identified as "ROE" * Ratio of time spent in open arms relative to time spent in the closed arms are identified as "ROT * Ratio of distance moved to open arms relative to distance moved to the closed arms are identified as "ROM". Dataset 2 (individual_food_horading_data) * Individual Mongolian gerbils are identified as "ID" * The individual's sex ares identified as "sex" * The location of no-cover (NC) food patch are identified as "location_of_NC_patch" * The location of food patch habitats are identified as "habitat" * The duration of each foraging bout (s) are identified as "duration_of_each_foraging_bout" * The individual's personality types are identified as "personality“ * The time of experiment conduct are identified as "experiment_time" Dataset 3 (group_food_horading_data) * The number of chambers are identified as "chambers_ID" * The foraging frequency of each groups are identified as "foraging_frequency" * The location of food patch habitats are identified as "habitat" * The group average personality scores are identified as "group_personality" * The amount of group hoarede weight (g) are identified as "food_hoarding_mass" * The location of no-cover (NC) food patch are identified as "location_of_NC_patch" * The number of group members are identified as "group_members" * The proportion of bold individuals in the group are identified as "group_composition" * The time of experiment conduct are identified as "experiment_time" Dataset 4 (survival_and_reproduction_data) dateset of acclimate_survival * Individual Mongolian gerbils are identified as "ID" * The individual's personality scores are identified as "personality_score“ * The individual's personality types are identified as "personality“ * The individual's sex ares identified as "sex" * The survival after the acclimated period are identified as "survival" dateset of individual_survival * Individual Mongolian gerbils are identified as "ID" * The individual's personality scores are identified as "personality_score“ * The individual's personality types are identified as "personality“ * The individual's sex ares identified as "sex" * The over-wintering survival or death are identified as "over-wintering_survival" dateset of group_survival_and_reproduction * The number of chambers are identified as "chambers_ID" * The group average personality scores are identified as "group_personality_score" * The proportion of bold individuals in the group are identified as "group_composition" * The over-wintering survival rate (%) of groups are identified as "over-wintering_survival" * The over-wintering survival rate (%) of bold individuals in group are identified as "bold_survival" * The over-wintering survival rate (%) of shy individuals in group are identified as "shy_survival" * The over-wintering reproduction rate (%) of groups are identified as "over-winter_reproduction"