Examining the Effect of Urbanization on Personality, Plasticity, and Spatial Cognition in Scatter Hoarders

Abstract

Anthropogenic environmental changes are occurring globally and are having dramatic effects on wildlife. Successful urban animals can alter behaviours to adjust to these conditions, but it is not well understood how these modifications arise. In particular, exploratory personality and behavioural plasticity are predicted to facilitate colonization in urban areas. The link between exploratory personality, cognition, and plasticity has received little attention, and has never been examined in urban animals. The first objective of this thesis was to examine the relationship between exploratory personality and habituation in a novel environment, and determine whether variation at the individual-level is predicted by urbanization. The second objective was to explore the association between exploratory personality and spatial cognition within scatter hoarders, and assess spatial memory along an urban gradient. At the individual-level, I report significant inter-individual differences in exploratory personality and habituation. I found evidence that fast initial explorers tend to habituate in a novel environment over time while slow explorers do not. There was no significant relationship between exploratory personality and spatial cognition within individuals. At the population level, urbanization did not significantly predict habituation or spatial cognition. I do report a significant positive relationship between urbanization and exploration. Overall, I conclude that urban individuals are significantly faster explorers, but are not more behaviourally plastic and do not show differences in spatial memory. Further work examining personality, cognition, and plasticity within individuals is needed to determine whether these traits have implications for populations under different environmental conditions.