DOI: 10.5061/dryad.44j0zpcm7
title: Personality affects female mate choice: frogs displaying more consistent bold behaviors are choosier

description: Mate choice is an important cause of natural and sexual selection, and
 drives the evolution and elaboration of male ornaments. Yet mate choice
 decisions are often neither consistent nor uniform, and a range of factors
 have been identified to influence variation between and within
 individuals. A potential source of variation influencing preferences
 and/or choosiness is animal personality, i.e., repeatable among-individual
 differences in behaviors. Not only may individuals differ in average
 personality phenotype, but also vary in how consistently they display said
 personality. Distinguishing between personality and consistency is
 important because both aspects are potentially naturally selected traits
 that may yet influence how sexually selected ornaments are evaluated. Here
 we use a predator evasion assay to test whether there is variation in
 boldness among female gray treefrogs (Hyla versicolor), and then examine
 whether personality traits (spectrum of shy to bold) are correlated with
 choosiness for longer duration calls. We document substantial and
 repeatable between-individual variation in boldness, suggesting the
 presence of animal personality. Results also reveal that the consistency
 with which females expressed boldness is independent from average
 personality phenotype and that it is correlated with choosiness: more
 consistently bold females were choosier. 
description: Uploaded here are two CSV files associated with different stages
 of the data collection and analysis; (1) assessment of personality via
 boldness and (2) relationship between boldness and choosiness.
 <strong>(1)
 PERSONALITY FILE</strong>
 <strong>Personality Assay </strong>– The personality
 experiment measured boldness using severity of escape responses to an
 approaching novel predator in Eastern Gray Treefrogs (<em>Hyla
 versicolor</em>). We confronted each frog with a slowly approaching
 artificial predator that recreated the shadow effect of a looming predator
 – a black square with eyespots affixed to the front of a wooden, wheeled
 children's "Pull Along Duck" toy. To begin, the frog was
 placed on a short PVC perch elevated and centered within a one-meter
 diameter circular arena. As the predator approached, we scored the
 following frog behaviors in a binary fashion: flinching, turning, hiding,
 and jumping. We considered behaviors that happened both before and the
 moment when the predator collided with the perch, although severity of
 responses before/after were scored differently. If the frog exhibited no
 jumping response before the predator made contact, the trial was repeated
 again for a maximum of three attempts to assess the breadth of behavioral
 responses. <strong>Personality Data
 Translation</strong> -- For each replicate, the binary behavior
 scores were assigned values (0.1 to 1) representative of severity of
 response and used to calculate escape score as the final measure of
 boldness. Values assigned: flinch at contact = 0.1, flinch before contact
 = 0.2, turn at contact = 0.3, turn before contact = 0.4, jump/hide at
 contact = 0.8, and jump/hide before contact = 1. Escape score was
 calculated from the sum of the behaviors exhibited by each frog, adjusted
 by number of attempts per replicate. Then, sums were divided by the
 maximum possible value (1.6) for a more intuitive measure, bolder
 individuals were associated with higher escape scores. 
 <strong>Personality Dataset</strong> -- The data
 sheet provides (A) female ID, (B) replicate number, (C) number of
 attempts, (D-J) scored behaviors, (K-L) conversion into escape scores, and
 (M) final escape score. Columns O and P show the score value of each
 behavior.    <strong>(2)
 CHOOSINESS-PERSONALITY FILE</strong>
 <strong>Choosiness Assay </strong>-- We were most
 interested in comparing personality to mate choice. We used one measure of
 mate choice, choosiness, which indicates the amount of energy a female is
 willing to invest for the most attractive mate. We used acoustic
 dual-speaker playback trials with Eastern Gray Treefrogs to present each
 female with artificial male call stimuli. In each choosiness trial, two
 stimuli were presented to the female (6 pulses and 18 pulses) played at
 different amplitudes. By manipulating amplitude, we change the perceived
 distance from the call, so a quieter call=further away. The choosiness
 data here indicates the maximum amplitude difference between stimuli (the
 quietest dB in which the attractive stimulus was chosen).
 <strong>Choosiness-Personality Dataset</strong> -- As
 we had previously confirmed that inter-individual differences were
 maintained across replicates (personality via escape score), we were able
 to compare the morphology and choosiness data to the mean escape score
 across replicates and the associated CV. This data sheet provides (A)
 female ID, (B) body size measured in mm (snout-vent-length; SVL), (C) body
 condition, the regression between mass (g) and SVL (mm), (D) choosiness as
 maximum dB in which the female chose the attractive call, (E) mean escape
 score across replicates, and (F) CV of escape scores. The mean escape
 score indicates personality phenotype and CV indicates individual
 consistency across replicates. 
description: # Personality affects mate choice: treefrogs displaying more consistent
 bold behaviors are choosier
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.44j0zpcm7](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.44j0zpcm7) The files uploaded relate to the two main topics presented in this manuscript using Eastern Gray Treefrogs (\*Hyla versicolor\*); (1) if they have personality (boldness) and (2) if personality is related to mate choice (choosiness). **Experimental Methods:** To measure boldness, we used a novel experiment assessing the severity of escape responses to an approaching novel predator. Each frog was placed on a perch in a circular arena (1m diameter) with an attached runway in which a novel predator was pulled towards the frog. During each trial, different responsive behaviors (flinches, turns, jumps, and hide) were recorded in a binary (yes/no) style and also whether the behavior was displayed before and after the predator made contact with the frog's perch. If a frog did not jump before the predator made contact (the most extreme response) during her first attempt, the predator approach process was repeated during the same replicate for a maximum of three attempts. This experiment was replicated four times across 12 days on a three-day rotation (feeding day, rest day, experiment day; repeated 4x). To measure choosiness (defined as the effort a female is willing to invest into finding the preferred male), we used a two-speaker acoustic playback design. During each trial, speakers presented each female with two artificial male calls differing only in number of pulses (18 and 6). The same stimuli were used across trials, but played at different amplitudes. By manipulating amplitude, we change the perceived distance from the call, so a quieter call=further away. The choosiness data here indicates the maximum amplitude difference between stimuli (the quietest dB in which the attractive stimulus was chosen). A female was given a maximum of 5 minutes to choose a male call (approached speaker within 10cm). ## Description of the data and file structure Since the assessment of mate choice relied on first establishing the presence of personality, our analysis occurred in two stages. Each stage is associated with a different data file. First, we needed to examine if there were repeatable inter-individual differences in boldness. Once we established repeatability of boldness behaviors, we were able to use mean and CV to compare to choosiness. * The **personality file** provides the binary scores (1 and 0) denoting the evasive behaviors (flinch, turn, hide/jump; before and at contact with the predator). If a frog underwent multiple attempts within a replicate, values were combined. Each row is associated with one replicate, subsequently each female ID occupies four rows. This file also shows the process in which we converted binary scores into a final escape score used for analysis (see manuscript and/or dryad description for escape score calculation). ***Columns include*:** (A) female ID, (B) replicate, (C) number of attempts within each replicate, (D-J) behavior scores, (K-L) behavior conversion, and (M) final escape score. * The **choosiness-personality** file combines personality, mate choice, and morphology measures that contributed to the final model of our analysis. Personality data from the previous file was simplified prior, as we only used the mean and CV of the escape scores. ***Columns include*:** (A) female ID, (B) snout-vent-length/SVL (mm) as a measure of body length, (C) body condition as a regression between mass (g) and SVL (mm), (D) choosiness as the maximum amplitude (dB) difference in which she chose the 18 pulse call, (E) mean of escape score, and (F) CV of escape score. ## Sharing/Access information Data is publicly available through Dryad or upon direct request from the authors. ## Code/Software We used the program JMP to run the statistics and R to make the figures.