Does Animal Personality Affect Movement in Habitat Corridors? Experiments with Common Voles (Microtus arvalis) Using Different Corridor Widths

SIMPLE SUMMARY: An animal’s personality may affect how they move and what risks they take while they are moving within a landscape. Understanding the movement constraints of wildlife is of increasing importance in fragmented landscapes. We investigated how rodents of opposing personality types moved through two experimental corridors of differing widths. We tracked the voles with automated radio telemetry and quantified the effects of personality on movement. While personality measures did not predict movement patterns, voles in the narrow corridor system entered the corridor faster and spent less time in the corridor than those in the wide corridor. Thus, it may be impossible to detect differences in the risk-taking behavior of small rodents based on personality types if their perceived predation risk is too high. Regarding corridors, our results suggest that the widely held principle that wider is better may not hold true if the fast exchange between populations individuals is the designated function of the corridor. ABSTRACT: Animal personality may affect an animal’s mobility in a given landscape, influencing its propensity to take risks in an unknown environment. We investigated the mobility of translocated common voles in two corridor systems 60 m in length and differing in width (1 m and 3 m). Voles were behaviorally phenotyped in repeated open field and barrier tests. Observed behavioral traits were highly repeatable and described by a continuous personality score. Subsequently, animals were tracked via an automated very high frequency (VHF) telemetry radio tracking system to monitor their movement patterns in the corridor system. Although personality did not explain movement patterns, corridor width determined the amount of time spent in the habitat corridor. Voles in the narrow corridor system entered the corridor faster and spent less time in the corridor than animals in the wide corridor. Thus, landscape features seem to affect movement patterns more strongly than personality. Meanwhile, site characteristics, such as corridor width, could prove to be highly important when designing corridors for conservation, with narrow corridors facilitating faster movement through landscapes than wider corridors.