ArticleScientific reports2019
Interspecific competition affects the expression of personality-traits in natural populations.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Revisiting competitive outcomes through a trait lens: a global meta-analysis across species provenance.Nature communications · 2025Pooled it
- Boldness and niche width structure spatial interactions in a natural rodent community.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
- Effects of Brook Trout Invasion on Behavioral and Dietary Shifts in Brown Trout.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Article
- The timid invasion: behavioural adjustments and range expansion in a non-native rodent.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Native species exhibit physiological habituation to invaders: a reason for hope.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Article
- Reproductive Traits of an Invasive Alien Population of Grey Squirrel (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2020Article
- Relationships between personality traits and the physiological stress response in a wild mammal.Current zoology · 2020Article
- The effect of heterospecific and conspecific competition on inter-individual differences in tungara frog tadpole (Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Competition between animal species can cause niche partitioning and shape an individual's phenotype, including its behaviour. However, little is known about effects of interspecific competition on personality, the among-individual variation in behaviour that is consistent across different spatial and temporal contexts. We investigated whether alien grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) influenced the expression of personality traits in native red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris). In Italy, alien grey squirrels replaced native reds through competition for food resources and space, reducing breeding and recruitment in the native species. We compared personality of red squirrels in red-only (no interspecific competition) and red-grey (with interspecific competition) sites, using arena-tests. The trait activity was measured by Open Field Test while sociability and avoidance were quantified by Mirror Image Stimulation test. Red squirrels co-occurring with the alien species had higher sociability scores and higher between-individual variation in sociability than in red-only sites. Differences in activity and avoidance were not significant. Personality - fitness relationships were not affected by presence or absence of grey squirrels, suggesting that the expression of sociability in red squirrels was not due to short-term selection, but was likely the result of context-related advantages when co-occurring with the competing species.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.