Pace-of-life syndrome: linking personality, metabolism and colour ornamentation in male guppies

Within populations, there commonly exists consistent among-individual differences in behaviour. As a potential mechanism maintaining this variation, the pace-of-life-syndrome (POLS) hypothesis posits that consistent differences in the behaviour of individuals (i.e. ‘personality’) are intercorrelated and have coevolved with consistent individual differences in metabolism and life-history traits. Here, using adult male guppies, Poecilia reticulata, we tested under laboratory conditions (1) whether behavioural and metabolic traits vary consistently among individuals over time (≤ 7 days) and (2) the POLS prediction that repeatable behavioural traits should be intercorrelated with each other and with repeatable metabolic rate at the among-individual level. Furthermore, based on indicator models of sexual selection, we expected that sexually selected male colour ornamentation would predict individual personality and metabolic rate. We repeatedly assayed three behavioural traits (sociability, ...