Personality and the response to predation risk: effects of information quantity and quality

Within aquatic ecosystems, chemosensory cues provide valuable public information regarding the form and degree of risk, allowing prey to make informed behavioural decisions. Such cues, however, may vary in both relative concentration detected (i.e. ‘quantity’) and reliability of the information available (i.e. ‘quality’), leading to varying response patterns. Moreover, prey species are also known to exhibit consistent behavioural tactics towards managing risk (i.e. personality), possibly shaping their use of public information. Here, we present two experiments examining the potential interacting effects of personality and the quantity (Experiment 1) or quality (Experiment 2) of public information on the short-term predator avoidance responses of wild-caught Trinidadian guppies under semi-natural conditions. Our first experiment demonstrated that personality shaped responses to a high concentration of alarm cues (high risk), with shyer guppies exhibiting stronger antipredator responses than bolder guppies. When exposed to either low risk or stream water controls, personality had no effect on the intensity of response. Our second experiment demonstrated that personality again shaped the response to high concentrations of alarm cues (a known risk) but not to a novel chemosensory cue (tilapia odour). When exposed to the unknown novel cue, guppies exhibited a relatively high intensity antipredator response, regardless of personality. Combined, our results suggest that individual risk-taking tactics shape the use of public information in a context-dependent fashion.