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The balance between resource acquisition and risk avoidance should vary according to personality type, with potential knock-on effects for fitness. Although previous studies have suggested a link between boldness and fitness components, little evidence is available on the behavioural mechanisms mediating this relationship in the wild. Because habitat use is the outcome of the trade-off between the costs and benefits associated with using each habitat type, we evaluated between-individual differences in habitat use of 64 GPS-collared female roe deer, Capreolus capreolus , using multinomial logit mixed models. To investigate whether deer differed in their habitat use tactics in relation to their personality type and their annual reproductive success, we assessed the link between individual habitat use patterns, boldness (measured as the strength of behavioural responsiveness to handling) and annual reproductive success (measured by the presence/absence of fawns at heel during autumn). Although daily and seasonal variations in the risk–resource landscapes clearly drove patterns of habitat use, individuals adopted contrasting habitat use tactics depending on their position along the shy–bold gradient and their reproductive status. Shy individuals occupied safer woodland more frequently, even at night when risk is lower. In contrast, bold individuals were better able to exploit rich open habitats. When this included mature autumn crops, these females weaned more offspring. Finally, irrespective of personality type, females that used meadows more often also achieved higher annual reproductive success. Overall, we demonstrate that individuals express divergent habitat use tactics as a function of their ability to avoid exposure to risk and their annual reproductive success. Highlights • We measured habitat use, boldness and reproductive success in 64 female roe deer. • Spatiotemporal variations in the risk-resource trade-off shape deer habitat use. • The way individuals use their environment also depends on their personality type. • Differences in habitat use between personalities are linked to reproductive success. • Individual habitat use tactics mediate the personality – fitness link in the wild. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because avoiding predation is crucial for fitness, foraging animals must trade acquisition of high-quality resources against risk avoidance when the best resources occur in locations with high predation risk. Although optimality models predict the distance at which an animal should initiate vigilance and flight, many studies have shown that animals generally flee soon after detecting an approaching threat, supporting the ‘flush early and avoid the risk’ (FEAR) hypothesis. Despite this, flight behaviour varies markedly depending on context, suggesting some behavioural plasticity in the response of prey to a given threat. We evaluated the degree of plasticity in the flight responses of roe deer, Capreolus capreolus , a highly flexible species which thrives in human-dominated landscapes. Based on individually identifiable animals and a standardized flight initiation protocol, we measured the distance at which a deer detected an approaching threat, and the distance at which it subsequently initiated flight. Our results provide strong support for the FEAR hypothesis, suggesting that alert and flight responses are strongly coupled in roe deer. However, the perceived level of both risk (in terms of landscape openness and proximity to human infrastructure) and reward (in terms of habitat quality) influenced the time it took for a deer to detect an approaching threat, and the subsequent time for which the threat was tolerated prior to flight. Overall, our findings indicate that although roe deer minimize monitoring costs when assessing risk by fleeing early, they also adjust their monitoring and flight responses to the local risk–resource trade-off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mortality risk from hunting/predation should increase animals'' vigilance and modify their selection of feeding sites. This risk may thus be costly if vigilance interferes with feeding and/or if animals select poorer but safer feeding sites. We observed the vigilance behaviour of roe deer, Capreolus capreolus, feeding in a fragmented landscape during and outside the hunting season and compared food availability and local landscape features at these feeding sites with random paired sites. Roe deer spent more time vigilant during the hunting season than outside it. During the hunting season, vigilance decreased as the woodland extent within an 800m radius increased, but this was not the case outside the hunting season. Vigilance decreased with increasing distance to houses, both during and outside the hunting season. When food is abundant, interference with feeding may be low because animals can simultaneously process food (chewing) and be vigilant. During the hunting season, the total time spent vigilant while chewing increased with increasing food abundance to a lesser extent than outside the hunting season, suggesting a higher level of costly exclusive vigilance during the hunting season. Outside the hunting season animals selected feeding sites that provided more food, but during the hunting season, as risk (proximity to houses) was positively correlated with food availability, animals no longer selected feeding sites on the basis of food availability. Taken together, our results indicate that roe deer trade off risk avoidance for food availability in hunted populations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]