Abstract
Differences in individual personality are common amongst animals, which
can play an ecological and evolutionary role given links to fitness.
Personality affects animal life processes and outputs (e.g., behavior,
life history, growth, survival, reproduction), and has become a common
theme in animal behavioral ecology research. In the present study, we
used Siberian Sturgeon to explore how personality traits of boldness and
shyness are related to swimming performance, post exercise recovery and
phenotypic morphology. Firstly, our results indicated that the Siberian
sturgeon juveniles of shyness were better swimmers, validating
evolutionary biology trade-off theory. The critical swimming speed
(Ucrit) of the shy groups was higher than that of the bold groups.
Secondly, the shy groups were more resilient after exercise fatigue. The
swimming fatigue recovery ability, the glucose and lactic acid
concentration recovery ability of shy groups were greater than that of
bold groups. Thirdly, the shy groups were more streamlined. Compared
with bold groups, shy groups had smaller caudate stalk lengths, caudate
stalk heights, superior caudal lobes, and inferior caudal lobes. These
research results further enrich the theoretical viewpoints of fish
behavior biology, more importantly, which provided a good example for
studying the relationship between sturgeon’s “personality” and
swimming performance.