Register      Login
Australian Mammalogy Australian Mammalogy Society
Journal of the Australian Mammal Society
Shopping Cart: ( empty )
You are here: Home > Journals > AM > AM25028
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)
Contents Vol 47(3)

The bold and the biased: the influence of behaviour on capture probability in woylies (Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi)

Natasha D. Harrison https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5779-0187 A B *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, Australia.

B Biodiversity and Conservation Science, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, 37 Wildlife Place, Woodvale, WA, Australia.

* Correspondence to: natasha.harrison@uwa.edu.au

Handling Editor: Julie Old

Australian Mammalogy 47, AM25028 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM25028
Submitted: 30 April 2025  Accepted: 4 August 2025  Published: 21 August 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Mammal Society. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Consistent differences in behaviour among individual animals are commonly observed. These behavioural types have important implications for monitoring populations as they can have a profound impact on detection probability. Behaviour-driven sampling bias has potential to greatly influence the conservation and management of woylies (Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi), that are primarily monitored using live trapping. This study explicitly tests whether there is any correlation between agitation behaviour (a repeatable trait) and cage trap capture probability in wild woylies, finding no evidence for an effect. This suggests that studies of woylies employing cage trapping are unlikely to be confounded by behaviour-driven sampling biases arising from this trait.

Keywords: animal personality, applied behaviour, bettong, capture probability, non-random sampling, population monitoring, sampling bias, trapping bias.

References

Augustine, B. C., Tredick, C. A., and Bonner, S. J. (2014). Accounting for behavioural response to capture when estimating population size from hair snare studies with missing data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 5(11), 1154-1161.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Biro, P. A. (2013). Are most samples of animals systematically biased? Consistent individual trait differences bias samples despite random sampling. Oecologia 171(2), 339-345.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Biro, P. A., and Dingemanse, N. J. (2009). Sampling bias resulting from animal personality. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 24(2), 66-67.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Blumstein, D. T., and Fernández-Juricic, E. (2004 Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/3588984). The Emergence of Conservation Behavior. Conservation Biology 18(5), 1175-1177.
| Google Scholar |

Brooks, M., Kristensen, K., van Benthem, K., Magnusson, A., Berg, C., Nielsen, A., Skaug, H., Mächler, M., and Bolker, B. (2017). glmmTMB Balances Speed and Flexibility Among Packages for Zero-inflated Generalized Linear Mixed Modeling. R Journal 9, 378-400.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Carter, A. J., Heinsohn, R., Goldizen, A. W., and Biro, P. A. (2012). Boldness, trappability and sampling bias in wild lizards. Animal Behaviour 83(4), 1051-1058.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Dingemanse, N. J., and Réale, D. (2005 Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/4536295). Natural Selection and Animal Personality. Behaviour 142(9/10), 1159-1184.
| Google Scholar |

Garamszegi, L. Z., Eens, M., and Török, J. (2009). Behavioural syndromes and trappability in free-living collared flycatchers, Ficedula albicollis. Animal Behaviour 77(4), 803-812.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Gosling, S. D., and John, O. P. (1999). Personality Dimensions in Nonhuman Animals. Current Directions in Psychological Science 8(3), 69-75.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Ham, C., Donnelly, C. A., Astley, K. L., Jackson, S. Y. B., and Woodroffe, R. (2019). Effect of culling on individual badger Meles meles behaviour: Potential implications for bovine tuberculosis transmission. Journal of Applied Ecology 56(11), 2390-2399.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Hammond, T. T., Curtis, M. J., Jacobs, L. E., Tobler, M. W., Swaisgood, R. R., and Shier, D. M. (2021). Behavior and detection method influence detection probability of a translocated, endangered amphibian. Animal Conservation 24(3), 401-411.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Harrison, N. D. (2024). Loss of anti-predator traits from havened Australian mammal populations: drivers, consequences, and mitigation tools. Ph.D. thesis, University of Western Australia, Western Australia, Australia 10.26182/hgyx-6j84

Harrison, N. D., Frick, C. H., and Wayne, A. F. (2022). Repeatable measure of cage trap behaviour to quantify boldness and agitation in a macropod. Australian Mammalogy 45(2), 237-240.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Harrison, N. D., Phillips, B. L., Mitchell, N. J., Wayne, J. C., Maxwell, M. A., Ward, C. G., and Wayne, A. F. (2023). Perverse outcomes from fencing fauna: Loss of antipredator traits in a havened mammal population. Biological Conservation 281, 110000.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Harrison, N. D., Phillips, B. L., Wayne, A. F., and Mitchell, N. J. (2024a). Sustained predation pressure may prevent the loss of anti-predator traits from havened populations. Ecology and Evolution 14(7), e11668.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Harrison, N. D., Thorn, S. M., Maxwell, M. A., Ward, C. G., Wayne, J. C., and Wayne, A. F. (2024b). Insuring woylies (Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi) against extinction: establishment of Perup Sanctuary. Wildlife Research 51(7), WR23056.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Harrison, N. D., Frick, C. H., Wayne, A. F., Mitchell, N. J., Valentine, L., Wayne, J. C., Sandow, D., Brewster, R., and Phillips, B. L. (2025a). The quick and the dead: behavioural plasticity of anti-predator responses in an Endangered mammal. Conservation Science and Practice 7(4), e70028.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Harrison, N. D., Phillips, B. L., Mitchell, N. J., Macmahon, B., Rasmussen, D., Lacey, P., Fanson, K., and Wayne, A. F. (2025b). Dancing with the devil: Could native predators inside ‘predator‐free’ havens be good for the conservation of threatened native prey species? Journal of Applied Ecology 62(3), 444-457.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Hartig, F. (2022). ‘DHARMa: Residual Diagnostics for Hierarchical (Multi-Level/Mixed) Regression Models.’ R package version 0.4.6. Available at https://github.com/florianhartig/dharma

Johnstone, K. C., McArthur, C., and Banks, P. B. (2021). Catch me if you can: personality drives technique-specific biases during live-capture trapping. Wildlife Research 48(8), 713-721.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Johnstone, K. C., Price, C., and Garvey, P. M. (2024). Personality, sex and capture biases: Challenges for predator monitoring and management. Journal of Applied Ecology 61(9), 2207-2218.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Jolly, C. J., Webb, J. K., Gillespie, G. R., Hughes, N. K., and Phillips, B. L. (2019). Bias averted: personality may not influence trappability. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 73(9), 129.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Michelangeli, M., Wong, B. B. M., and Chapple, D. G. (2016). It’s a trap: sampling bias due to animal personality is not always inevitable. Behavioral Ecology 27(1), 62-67.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Nakagawa, S., and Schielzeth, H. (2010). Repeatability for Gaussian and non‐Gaussian data: a practical guide for biologists. Biological Reviews 85(4), 935-956.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Page, K. D., Ruykys, L., Miller, D. W., Adams, P. J., Bateman, P. W., and Fleming, P. A. (2019). Influences of behaviour and physiology on body mass gain in the woylie (Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi) post-translocation. Wildlife Research 46(5), 429-443.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

R Core Team. (2024). ‘R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing.’ (R Foundation for Statistical Computing: Vienna, Austria). Available at https://www.R-project.org/.

Réale, D., Reader, S. M., Sol, D., McDougall, P. T., and Dingemanse, N. J. (2007). Integrating animal temperament within ecology and evolution. Biological Reviews 82(2), 291-318.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Šmejkal, M., Bartoň, D., Brabec, M., Sajdlová, Z., Souza, A. T., Moraes, K. R., Blabolil, P., Vejřík, L., and Kubečka, J. (2022). Behaviour affects capture probability by active sampling gear in a cyprinid fish. Fisheries Research 249, 106267.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Smith, M., Volck, G., Palmer, N., Jackson, C., Moir, C., Parker, R., Palmer, B., and Thomasz, A. (2020). Conserving the endangered woylie (Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi): Establishing a semi‐arid population within a fenced safe haven. Ecological Management & Restoration 21(2), 108-114.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Stuber, E. F., Araya-Ajoy, Y. G., Mathot, K. J., Mutzel, A., Nicolaus, M., Wijmenga, J. J., Mueller, J. C., and Dingemanse, N. J. (2013). Slow explorers take less risk: a problem of sampling bias in ecological studies. Behavioral Ecology 24(5), 1092-1098.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Tay, N. E., Warburton, N. M., Moseby, K. E., and Fleming, P. A. (2023). Predator escape behaviour in threatened marsupials. Animal Conservation 26(4), 587-601.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Webster, M. M., and Rutz, C. (2020). How STRANGE are your study animals? Nature 582(7812), 337-340.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Wilson, A. D. M., Binder, T. R., McGrath, K. P., Cooke, S. J., and Godin, J.-G. J. (2011). Capture technique and fish personality: angling targets timid bluegill sunfish, Lepomis macrochirus. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 68(5), 749-757.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Yeatman, G. J., and Wayne, A. F. (2015). Seasonal home range and habitat use of a critically endangered marsupial (Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi) inside and outside a predator-proof sanctuary. Australian Mammalogy 37(2), 157-163.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |