We used a variety of approaches to achieve the objectives, including manipulative experiments with a fish species at various levels and over different time spans but also literature reviews and the development of a conceptual framework. We found that behavioural types in the model species Heterandria formosa exist and that they are stable over the period from juveniles to adulthood. As individual fish grow and become older, behavioural types become more stable and the differences among fish become more pronounced, suggesting a role of experiences acquired over life and the accumulation of small stimulus over life. The emergence of behavioural types was not in all of the measured behaviours influenced by the environment the individuals were exposed to, but exploration and boldness was affected by food availability: fish that experienced a chronic food shortage explored more and were bolder, but this effect of the rearing environment manifested only in later, adult stages. Fish from low food environments were also less stable in their exploration type, suggesting that a higher behavioural flexibility may be of advantage under environmental stress. The link between behavioural types and life history traits existed, but only for traits of adults, which seems in line with that in the adults stage behaviour was most sensitive to environmental cues. These results are currently prepared for publication.
We also found out with the help of an experiment that in the absence of hetero- and conspecific competitors and natural enemies and in a familiar setting, behavioural types in exploration and boldness do not influence individual feeding rates. Because feeding is necessary to acquire the energy and matter for growth and reproduction this finding suggests that behavioural types may influence individual fitness and life histories not in all circumstances.
We published a literature review on the several ecological and managerial consequences of behavioural types for social groups, populations, food webs, fisheries and stock assessment under human exploitation that employs passive gear. Using the here developed framework of the so called timidity syndrome which can be a result of the behavioural types – life history link, we identified further research activities necessary to deepen our understanding of how exploited fish populations respond to behaviourally selective harvesting.
We also used the timidity syndrome framework to propose that consumptive nature-based tourism might lead to behavioral outcomes opposed to those so far proposed in the literature. We argue that the exploitation animal populations exploited in nature-based tourism like recreational angling induces a timidity syndrome rather than increasing the boldness level of the exploited populations.
As befits a basic research program such as ours the results and findings of the action were mainly disseminated via publications in scientific, peer-reviewed journals, the participation in scientific conferences and workshops and the invited presentations in seminar and lecture series. We also transferred our results to other research settings.
