DOI: 10.5061/dryad.tdz08kq9q
title: Range expansion during recolonisation: what does animal personality have to do with it?

description: At the edge of an ongoing expansion, pioneer individuals encounter novel
 ecological and evolutionary pressures that may not be experienced by
 conspecifics settled in long-colonised areas. Consistent behavioural
 differences among conspecifics (animal personality) may be important
 determinants of individuals’ successful colonisation of novel environments
 and range expansion. By enhancing an individual's ability to find
 food and shelter as well as increasing its capacity to navigate novel
 environments, behavioural traits such as exploration and risk-taking are
 thus expected to be more highly expressed in populations undergoing
 expansion than in established populations. We investigated
 among-individual variation in behaviours associated to risk-taking and
 exploratory tendencies in populations of small mammals during different
 stages of the colonisation process. Using a standardized behavioural test
 in the field, we quantified exploration and boldness of striped field mice
 (Apodemus agrarius, N=95) from six subpopulations from Germany, where they
 are established, and in Slovakia, where a recolonisation of the area is
 currently in progress, and in control species bank voles (Myodes
 glareolus, N=76) that shared the same habitats but were long-established
 at all sites. Striped field mice in the expanding populations were
 significantly slower in exploring the open field arena, while showing
 comparable levels of risk taking compared to conspecifics from established
 populations. No difference in behaviour was detected between the
 populations of bank voles. Our results suggest that a slow exploration
 strategy might play an advantageous role in expansion processes of small
 mammal populations.
description: # Range expansion during recolonisation: what does animal personality have
 to do with it? Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.tdz08kq9q](10.5061/dryad.tdz08kq9q) ## Description of the
 data and file structure This dataset includes behavioural data from two
 small mammal species (striped field mice *Apodemus agrarius* and bank
 voles *Myodes glareolus*) collected during field experiments in Slovakia
 and Germany. The study assesses personality traits (exploration and
 boldness) across populations at different stages of range colonisation.
 ### Files and variables #### File: Supplementary\_material\_-\_Data.xls
 **Description:** TABLE S3- Data file containing measurements from the Open
 Field Test. ##### Variables * Animal ID- Unique individual
 identity * Region- Region where the individual was captured and tested on
 site (Germany/Slovakia) * Stage- Stage of expansion of the population
 (expanding/settled) * Habitat type- Type of habitat where the
 trapping/testing occurred (rural/urban) * Site- Trapping site ID *
 Species- Species of the animal (AAG=striped field mouse, Apodemus
 agrarius; CGL = bank vole, C. glareolus) * Test round- Number of test
 round * Latency to emerge- Latency to emerge from the dark shelter into
 the arena (s) * Latency to OF centre- Latency to reach the central part of
 the open field arena (s) #### File: Supplementary\_Video.mp4
 **Description:** Example video of behavioural test protocol **File:
 Supplementary_material__2.xlsx** **Description:**  REPEATABILITY (TABLE
 S1) - Repeatability estimates (R), corresponding standard error (SE), and
 95% confidence intervals across region of origin (Germany vs Slovakia) for
 95 individual striped field mice - SFM (*Apodemus agrarius*) and 76
 individual bank voles - BV (*Myodes glareolus*), combined and separated
 for region of origin. For statistically significant effects P-values are
 highlighted in bold font.  MODELS (TABLE S2) - Model results for latency
 to emerge (in seconds) from the dark shelter and exploration activity in
 relation to region (Germany vs Slovakia), and test round for 95 individual
 striped field mice (*Apodemus agrarius*) and 76 individual bank voles
 (*Myodes glareolus*). Rm reports the marginal R² value based on the fixed
 factors, Rc the conditional R² value including the study site as a random
 factor. Reference levels are given in (). For statistically significant
 effects P-values are highlighted in bold font. ## Code/software All data
 analyses were conducted using R version 3.2.3 (R Core Team, 2015), an
 open-source software environment for statistical computing and graphics
 ([https://www.r-project.org/](https://www.r-project.org/)). The following
 R packages were used: rptR – for calculating repeatability of behavioural
 traits using parametric bootstrapping and permutations (Nakagawa and
 Schielzeth 2010; Stoffel et al. 2017). lme4 – for fitting restricted
 maximum-likelihood linear mixed-effects models (Bates et al. 2014). stats
 – for non-parametric testing (e.g. Mann-Whitney-U) and other standard
 statistical functions included in base R. No custom code is required to
 view or interpret the dataset. The dataset can be opened in spreadsheet
 software such as Microsoft Excel. ## Access information This dataset is
 original and has not been deposited elsewhere. All data were generated by
 the authors as part of the research project described in the associated
 publication.