DOI: 10.5061/dryad.m37pvmdgq
title: Data from: Reactions of captive adult great tits towards aposematic prey: Effects of personality

description: Individual variation in reactions to novel aposematic prey is common in
 avian predators. In wild adults, this variation may be caused by
 differences among individuals in experience with various prey, but similar
 variation exists in naive juveniles, and this is linked to personality – a
 complex of correlated, partly heritable behavioral traits that are
 consistent across time. Along the extremes on an axis of early exploratory
 behavior in great tits (Parus major), fast explorers are bold, aggressive,
 and routine-forming, whereas slow explorers are shy, less aggressive, and
 more innovative. We tested the effect of personality on innate wariness
 towards aposematic prey in adult hand-reared great tits from two lines
 selected for opposite levels of early exploratory behavior (fast versus
 slow). The birds were offered aposematic firebugs (Pyrrhocoris apterus)
 over two days. Birds from both selection lines showed a similar degree of
 innate wariness towards the firebugs on the first day, but on the second
 day, fast explorers approached the firebugs significantly faster and more
 frequently than slow birds. Whether the birds attacked the firebugs was
 also dependent on their personality. Thus, personality-related individual
 differences in reactions of great tits towards the aposematic prey were
 maintained in the adult life stage.
description: # Data from: Reactions of captive adult great tits towards aposematic
 prey: Effects of personality For more details, contact: Dana Adamová,
 Department of Environmental Security, Faculty of Logistics and Crisis
 Management, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Studentské nám. 1532, 68601
 Uherské Hradiště, Czech Republic,
 [adamova.jezova@gmail.com](mailto:adamova.jezova@gmail.com) Date of data
 collection: 1.11.2007 - 19.11.2007 Geographic location of data collection:
 Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Heteren, 51.9560739N,
 5.7573625E (all experiments were carried out indoors) Information about
 funding sources that supported the collection and curation of the data:
 The work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (grant number
 206/07/0507) and Creativity, Intelligence & Talent for the Zlín
 Region. The study shows that personality influences how adult great tits
 react to warning-colored (aposematic) prey. Even though all birds were
 cautious at first, fast-exploring, bold individuals approached the prey
 more quickly and often than slow, shy, and more innovative birds on the
 second day. This demonstrates that individual differences in behavior,
 linked to personality, persist into adulthood and affect interactions with
 potentially dangerous prey. #### DATA FILES AND VARIABLES **1.
 mealworm.csv** * personality_line: S (slow line), F (fast line) *
 birdcode: individual code of the tested bird * idbird: bird identification
 * day: 1 (first day of test), 2 (second day of test) * sex: M (male), F
 (female) * age_in_month: age in months * age_in_years: age in years *
 approach_latency: latency (in seconds) to approach the mealworm **2.
 firebug.csv** * personality_line: S (slow line), F (fast line) * birdcode:
 individual code of the tested bird * idbird: bird identification * day: 1
 (first day of test), 2 (second day of test) * sex: M (male), F (female) *
 age_in_month: age in months * age_in_years: age in years *
 approach_latency: latency (in seconds) to approach Firebug *
 approaches_per_session: number of approaches to Firebug per session **3.
 handling.csv** * personality_line: S (slow line), F (fast line) *
 birdcode: individual code of the tested bird * idbird: bird identification
 * day: 1 (first day of test), 2 (second day of test) * sex: M (male), F
 (female) * age_in_month: age in months * age_in_years: age in years *
 firebug_attacked: 1 (bird attacked firebug), 0 (bird did notattackd
 firebug) Code/Software Software name and version: R version 4.4.2 Loaded
 packages: * package: dplyr version 1.1.4 • package: ggplot2 version 3.3.2
 • package: lme4 version 1.1-19 • package: car version 3.0-7 - software
 name and version: R Studio version 1.3.1073