Recent studies in the field of behavioural ecology have revealed intriguing variation in behaviour within single populations. Increasing evidence suggests that individual animals differ in their average level of behaviour displayed across a range of contexts (animal 'personality'), and in their responsiveness to environmental variation (plasticity), and that these phenomena can be considered complementary aspects of the individual phenotype. How should this complex variation be studied? Here, we outline how central ideas in behavioural ecology and quantitative genetics can be combined within a single framework based on the concept of 'behavioural reaction norms'. This integrative approach facilitates analysis of phenomena usually studied separately in terms of personality and plasticity, thereby enhancing understanding of their adaptive nature.

https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/pdf/S0169-5347(09)00243-2.pdf

Behavioural reaction norms: animal personality meets individual plasticity

1. Clarification: The 2013 Guidelines make a distinction between euthanasia, humane killing, and slaughter, and state that neither slaughter nor humane killing is covered in the document P.68, S6.1.1. Not included among the definitions of these terms are ending the lives of healthy animals or scientific collection of animals. For clarification, whatever the term used, classification of the method, or reason given for killing animals: euthanasia, humane killing, slaughter, harvest, depopulation, scientific collection, or research-related, the Council on Accreditation’s foremost concern, in all situations, is with humane technique. The goal of humane technique is to minimize pain, distress, and the negative effect to the animal. The technique employed should result in rapid loss of consciousness followed by cardiac or respiratory arrest and, ultimately, a loss of brain function. Although complete absence of pain and distress is preferred, it is understood that it cannot always be achieved P7.13.2.

https://works.bepress.com/cheryl_greenacre/14/download/

AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals: 2013 Edition

Fish welfare: Current issues in aquaculture

Recent studies of animal personality have focused on its proximate causation and its ecological and evolutionary significance, but have mostly ignored questions about its development, although an understanding of the latter is highly relevant to these other questions. One possible reason for this neglect is confusion about many of the concepts and terms that are necessary to study the development of animal personality. Here, we provide a framework for studying personality development that focuses on the properties of animal personality, and considers how and why these properties may change over time. We specifically focus on three dimensions of personality: (1) contextual generality at a given age or time, (2) temporal consistency in behavioural traits and in relationships between traits, and (3) the effects of genes and experience on the development of personality at a given age or life stage. We advocate using a new approach, contextual reaction norms, to study the contextual generality of personality traits at the level of groups, individuals and genotypes, show how concepts and terms borrowed from the literature on personality development in humans can be used to study temporal changes in personality at the level of groups and individuals, and demonstrate how classical developmental reaction norms can provide insights into the ways that genes and experiential factors interact across ontogeny to affect the expression of personality traits. In addition, we discuss how correlations between the effects of genes and experience on personality development can arise as a function of individuals' control over their own environment, via niche-picking or niche-construction. Using this framework, we discuss several widely held assumptions about animal personality development that still await validation, identify neglected methodological issues, and describe a number of promising new avenues for future research.

/pdf/the-development-of-animal-personality-relevance-concepts-and-26vxk4ortw.pdf

The development of animal personality: relevance, concepts and perspectives

Environmental pollution by pharmaceuticals is increasingly recognized as a major threat to aquatic ecosystems worldwide. A variety of pharmaceuticals enter waterways by way of treated wastewater effluents and remain biochemically active in aquatic systems. Several ecotoxicological studies have been done, but generally, little is known about the ecological effects of pharmaceuticals. Here we show that a benzodiazepine anxiolytic drug (oxazepam) alters behavior and feeding rate of wild European perch (Perca fluviatilis) at concentrations encountered in effluent-influenced surface waters. Individuals exposed to water with dilute drug concentrations (1.8 micrograms liter–1) exhibited increased activity, reduced sociality, and higher feeding rate. As such, our results show that anxiolytic drugs in surface waters alter animal behaviors that are known to have ecological and evolutionary consequences.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/339/6121/814.full.pdf

Dilute concentrations of a psychiatric drug alter behavior of fish from natural populations.

Theoreticians predict that animal ‘personality’ traits may be maladaptive if fixed throughout different contexts, so the present study aimed to test whether these traits are fixed or plastic. Rainbow trout (Onchorhyncus mykiss) were given emboldening or negative experiences in the forms of watching bold or shy individuals responding to novelty or winning or losing fights to examine whether prior experience affected boldness. Bold individuals that lost fights or watched shy demonstrators became more shy by increasing their latency to approach a novel object, whereas shy observers that watched bold demonstrators remained cautious and did not modify their responses to novelty. Shy winners became bolder and decreased their latency to approach a novel object, but shy losers also displayed this shift. In comparison, control groups showed no change in behaviour. Bold fishes given negative experiences reduced their boldness which may be an adaptive response; however, shy fishes may base their strategic decisions upon self-assessment of their relative competitive ability and increase their boldness in situations where getting to resources more quickly ensures they outcompete better competitors.

/pdf/plasticity-in-animal-personality-traits-does-prior-2q6nz7tfle.pdf

Plasticity in animal personality traits: does prior experience alter the degree of boldness?

https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=acwp_vsm

Nociception in fish: stimulus-response properties of receptors on the head of trout Oncorhynchus mykiss.

https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=acwp_aff

Effect of noxious stimulation upon antipredator responses and dominance status in rainbow trout

https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=acwp_vsm

Paul J. Ashley

Papers

Fish welfare: Current issues in aquaculture

Plasticity in animal personality traits: does prior experience alter the degree of boldness?

Nociception in fish: stimulus-response properties of receptors on the head of trout Oncorhynchus mykiss.

Effect of noxious stimulation upon antipredator responses and dominance status in rainbow trout

Properties of corneal receptors in a teleost fish