DOI: 10.5061/dryad.w3r22812m
title: Data from: Behavioral syndromes across time and space in a long-lived turtle

description: Behavioral syndromes are correlated behaviors across different contexts
 and are critical for understanding processes in the ecology and evolution
 of animal personality. To aid in this endeavor, there is a need to study
 syndromes in wild animals from understudied species over long timescales.
 We investigated behavioral syndromes in wild ornate box turtles (Terrapene
 ornata) across four distinct populations over four different years. We
 measured three behavioral traits (boldness, activity, and exploration) in
 controlled trials using standardized 10-min assays on 174 different
 turtles 314 times. Overall, turtles demonstrated consistent correlations
 between behavioral traits, indicating conserved behavioral syndromes in
 this species. A behavioral syndrome between activity and exploration was
 detected in every population in every year except one in 2016, suggesting
 a strong conserved basis for these traits to covary. Correlations with
 boldness and other behavioral traits were also consistent but their
 magnitude varied. At least two populations did not exhibit relationships
 in two different years, one population’s syndrome strength changed from
 one year to the next, and another population exhibited a relationship in
 one year only. Boldness and activity were fully decoupled in one
 population, underscoring the significance of syndromes in coping with
 environmental variability for a long-lived ectothermic vertebrate. This is
 the first study to document behavioral syndromes along the boldness,
 activity, and exploration axes in a wild terrestrial turtle. Our results
 emphasize the need to preserve behavioral diversity while maintaining
 syndrome integrity alongside genetic and ecological diversity, which
 together will promote the conservation of ornate box turtles.
description: Please see the original protocols for collecting behavioral data
 described in Reed et al. (2023) as those data formed the basis of our
 study. Below are brief explanations of how this dataset was collected and
 processed. Data collection: We
 studied behavioral syndromes across four separate years (2016, 2020, 2021,
 and 2022) in four ornate box turtle (<em>Terrapene
 ornata</em>) populations from the Midwest. Behavior assays for
 boldness, activity, and exploration were conducted in all four populations
 following the same protocol in all years. Assays for each behavior were 10
 minutes long and conducted in a fixed order with turtle order randomly
 assigned each day. We performed assays in the mornings (between 0700–1200
 hr) over two consecutive days (starting the morning after the turtle was
 collected from the field). To start trials, turtles were placed in test
 arenas, at which point a timer was started, and then observers moved
 behind “blinds” to record data. Boldness was measured as the time for the
 turtle to emerge from the den in seconds. Activity was measured as the
 number of quadrant transitions around a circular track. Exploration was
 measured as the number of transitions between equal-sized quadrants with
 arched openings. Data processing: We
 used the average of two assays (day 1 and day 2) as the behavioral score
 for an individual turtle within a year. As factors, we included sex,
 population, year, and body size as curved carapace length in mm. We used
 all turtles for data analysis (174 turtles measured 314 times, which
 encompassed 95 turtles with measurements from at least 2 years), including
 turtles that did not emerge from the den during a boldness assay, which
 were scored as taking the maximum time possible (600 seconds for
 emergence). We also included turtles that exhibited zero quadrant
 transitions in either an activity or exploration assay. 
 Original paper with a description of the behavioral data
 collection:  Reed, B.M., K. Hobelman, A. Gauntt, M.
 Schwenka, A. Trautman, P. Wagner, S. Kim, C. Armstrong, S. Wagner, A.
 Weller, K. Brighton, S. Bloom, C. Nelson, F. Suboh, C. Kolthoff, S.
 Dukuly, R.J. Mercader, and D.F. Hughes. 2023. Spatiotemporal variation of
 behavior and repeatability in a long-lived turtle. Behavioral Ecology and
 Sociobiology 77: 88.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-023-03360-4
description: # Data from: Behavioral syndromes across time and space in a long-lived
 turtle
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.w3r22812m](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.w3r22812m) ## Description of the data and file structure We conducted behavior assays for boldness, activity, and exploration in four years across four populations of the ornate box turtle (*Terrapene ornata*) using wild individuals that were recaptured each year from the field via radiotelemetry. Assays were run for 10 minutes each. We assayed 174 adult turtles 314 times, including 95 turtles with measurements from at least 2 years. Boldness was measured as the time for the turtle to emerge from a den in seconds. Activity was measured as the number of quadrant transitions around a circular track. Exploration was measured as the number of transitions between equal-sized quadrants with arched openings. We used the average of two assays (day 1 and day 2) as the behavioral score for an individual turtle within a year. We also measured the body size of turtles as curved carapace length in mm and determined sex. We included turtles that did not emerge from the den during a boldness assay (600 seconds for emergence) and turtles that exhibited zero quadrant transitions in either an activity or exploration assay. ### Files and variables #### File: syndromes\_alldata.xlsx **Description:** This is a file that includes all of the data for all of the turtles measured for the three behavioral traits (boldness, activity, and exploration). The first tab includes the metadata with descriptions of the variables and the second tab includes all of the data for analysis. The behavioral trait values represent the average of two assays (day 1 and day 2) as the behavioral score for an individual turtle within a year. ##### Variables * Site - Population of origin (IA = Iowa; NT = North Topeka; LW = Lawerence; NE = Nebraska) * Year - Year of study (2016; 2020; 2021; 2022) * Sex - Turtle's sex (M = Male; F = Female) * IDSite - Turtle's individual ID number (A number + site combination that is unique to individual turtles [random effect]) * CCL - Curved carapace length (Linear measurement of a turtle's upper shell in millimeters) * den - Time to leave den (Mean latency time in seconds for boldness assay from day 1 and day 2 within a year) * activity - Number of quandrant transitions (Mean number of transitions for activity assay from day 1 and day 2 within a year) * explore - Number of quandrant transitions (Mean number of transitions for exploration assay from day 1 and day 2 within a year) ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * Electronic Supplementary Material: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-023-03360-4 Data was derived from the following sources: * Reed, B.M., K. Hobelman, A. Gauntt, M. Schwenka, A. Trautman, P. Wagner, S. Kim, C. Armstrong, S. Wagner, A. Weller, K. Brighton, S. Bloom, C. Nelson, F. Suboh, C. Kolthoff, S. Dukuly, R.J. Mercader, and D.F. Hughes. 2023. Spatiotemporal variation of behavior and repeatability in a long-lived turtle. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 77: 88.