Animals inhabiting high altitudes consistently show slow life-histories. The pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) hypothesis posits behavioural, physiological and/or morphological traits that mediate the trade-off between current and future reproduction or survival, which have coevolved along a slow-fast life history continuum. Previous studies have shown that the life histories of plateau pikas varied across altitude, high-altitude individuals showed slow pace of life which were characterized by few litters per year with small litter sizes. Thus, we hypothesized that pikas populations at higher altitudes would also express personalities characteristic associated with slow life history, such as high sociability, low activity or aggressiveness. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the activity and docility of three plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) populations distributed along an altitudinal gradient of the Tibetan Plateau. We predicted that high-altitude pika would be more docile and less active. The behaviour of 556 pikas, from which 120 individuals were measured at least twice, was quantified. We observed that plateau pikas at high altitudes were less active and more docile than pika at lower altitudes. Activity and docility were significantly and negatively correlated in populations from high altitudes but not in populations from low altitudes. Our results support the POLS hypothesis, highlight the existence of personality variation among populations distributed along an altitudinal gradient and emphasise the importance of environmental selection on personality divergence.

中文翻译：

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人群间的性格差异与高原鼠兔（Ochotona curzoniae）的海拔高度有关

居住在高海拔地区的动物一直表现出缓慢的生活史。生活节奏综合征 (POLS) 假说假设行为、生理和/或形态特征，这些特征在当前和未来的繁殖或生存之间进行权衡，这些特征沿着慢快的生活史连续体共同进化。以往的研究表明，高原鼠兔的生活史因海拔而异，高海拔个体的生活节奏缓慢，其特点是每年产仔数少，产仔数小。因此，我们假设高海拔地区的鼠兔种群也会表现出与缓慢生活史相关的个性特征，例如高社交性、低活动性或攻击性。我们通过比较沿青藏高原海拔梯度分布的三个高原鼠兔 (Ochotona curzoniae) 种群的活动性和温顺性来验证这一假设。我们预测高海拔鼠兔会更温顺，不那么活跃。量化了 556 只鼠兔的行为，其中 120 只鼠兔至少被测量了两次。我们观察到，高海拔的高原鼠兔比低海拔的鼠兔更不活跃，也更温顺。活动性和温顺性在高海拔人群中呈显着负相关，而在低海拔人群中则没有。我们的结果支持 POLS 假设，强调沿海拔梯度分布的人群之间存在个性差异，并强调环境选择对个性差异的重要性。