Investigating the link between behavioral syndromes and reproductive effort through the movement ecology of a large mammal

Behavioural ecology seeks to understand consistent inter-individual differences in behaviour, commonly referred to as animal personality, and their integration into behavioural syndromes. Explaining the maintenance of such behavioural variation remains a major theoretical challenge, with the Pace-of-Life Syndrome (POLS) hypothesis proposing that patterns of resource allocation and physiological processes generate life-history trade-offs, giving rise to different personality profiles distributed along a fast–slow continuum. “Fast” profiles are predicted to invest more in short-term reproduction reaching higher reproductive success than slower profiles. GPS tracking technologies offer the opportunity to investigate animal personality through movement ecology by enabling the collection of repeated behavioural responses across multiple ecological contexts. The mountain-dwelling Alpine chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) constitutes an ideal system for testing POLS theory in a wild system, as its polygynous mating system generates potentially pronounced variation in male reproductive strategies. Here, we used GPS telemetry data from 15 male and 12 female Alpine chamois from the Monte Grappa population to quantify three key movement-related behavioural traits: risk-taking, exploration, and activity. Using Bayesian Step Selection Functions (SSFs), we identified a major behavioural axis characterized by positive covariation among these traits, providing evidence for a behavioural syndrome representing one of the most conserved axes of behavioural variation in nature. We then investigated whether this behavioural axis was associated with reproductive behaviour and reproductive success by integrating telemetry data with field observations of male mating behaviour. Although the identified behavioural syndrome showed some correspondence with the predictions of the POLS framework, its relationship with reproductive strategies was not straightforward. Individuals with "fast" behavioural profiles did not consistently exhibit greater reproductive success than "slow" individuals, suggesting that the link between this behavioural syndrome and pace of life are more complex than predicted by current theory.