Exploratory and antipredator behaviours differ between territorial and nonterritorial male lizards JESSICA STAPLEY & J. SCOTT KEOGH School of Botany and Zoology, Australian National University (Received 30 November 2003; initial acceptance 13 January 2004; final acceptance 15 February 2004; published online 25 August 2004; MS. number: 7921) Alternative territorial tactics may be part of a broader behavioural tendency that can influence the expression of other behavioural traits. We compared the exploratory and predator avoidance behaviours of territorial and floater male water skinks, Eulamprus heatwolei, to identify whether these alternative behavioural tactics are part of a broader behavioural dichotomy. Floater and territorial males differed in their tendencies to explore novel habitats. Floaters spent less time in the refuge, moved further and ate more mealworms when placed in a novel enclosure, suggesting that floaters were less wary of the novel environment and had greater exploratory tendencies. Predator avoidance behaviours also differed between the two groups of males. Territorial lizards were less likely to retreat to a refuge site during a simulated predator attack, returned faster to a basking site after this attack and as a result had a smaller net reduction in preattack body temperature. These results may be attributed to the trade-off that territorial lizards face between territorial defence and antipredator behaviour, which floaters do not experience. Our results suggest that territorial tactics may be part of a broader behavioural tendency that can influence the expression and evolution of other seemingly unrelated traits. Ó 2004 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Trade-offs between traits as a result of conflicting selection pressures represents a central component of evolutionary biology (Roff 2002). These trade-offs occur predominantly between correlated life history traits, but more recent studies have shown correlations between behavioural responses across different contexts. For example, in the spider Agelenopsis aperta, some individuals may be consis- tently more aggressive than others, independent of the situation (Riechert & Hedrick 1993), and some stream- dwelling salamander larvae, Ambystoma barbouri, are con- sistently more active then others (Sih et al. 2003). Correlations between behaviours have also been identi- fied. Individual great tits, Parus major , that had greater exploratory tendencies dispersed further than did their more wary conspecifics (Dingemanse et al. 2003). Corre- lations have also been identified between behaviours that had been considered unrelated. For example, individual chaffinches, Fringilla coelebs, that were good foragers were also good at detecting predators (Cresswell et al. 2003). These studies show that behaviours may be linked, and that the evolution of a behavioural trait may be con- strained by selective forces acting on that trait in another context, ultimately limiting optimal expression of the behaviour (Sih et al. 2003). Identifying these behavioural correlations can provide insight into the selective pres- sures responsible for shaping the evolution of behavioural traits. Behavioural dichotomies such as territorial strategies provide a useful system to investigate the presence of behavioural correlations (Sih et al. 2003). Beginning with a known behavioural dichotomy, we can test whether individuals that display different tactics also differ in other behaviours that are not directly related to mating. Alter- native strategies are widespread and can manifest in the form of behavioural or morphological differences between individuals adopting alternative tactics (Gross 1996; Shuster & Wade 2003). Alternative behaviours, such as dominance and sneaker tactics, may be related to an overall fight–flight or shy–bold tendency (Wilson et al. 1994). If so, then they could influence a range of behav- iours, including exploratory behaviours, predator avoid- ance behaviours, dispersal tendencies and feeding rates (Wilson et al. 1994; Sih et al. 2003). Individuals displaying alternative tactics may face different selective trade-offs between behaviours. For example, males that adopt Correspondence: J. Stapley, School of Botany and Zoology, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, Australia (email: jessica.stapley@ anu.edu.au). 841 0003–3472/04/$30.00/0 Ó 2004 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR, 2004, 68, 841–846 doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.02.008