ABSTRACT Predicting the distance between an individual's release point into a new environment and their subsequent location (‘displacement’) could be useful during biological ‘introduction’ events (e.g., invasions/translocations) because variation in displacement could lead to spatially‐structured ecological and evolutionary effects, as well as implications for efforts to control introduction outcomes (e.g., establishment success). Two challenges limit our ability to predict post‐introduction displacement. First, displacement is shaped by individual movement, and many factors affect movement. As such, considerable recent effort has focused on finding particularly influential factors, including bold and exploratory behaviour. Second, movement patterns often differ between environments. Predicting post‐introduction displacement therefore benefits from assessments in the most relevant environment—that in which the introduction is occurring. Conservation translocations provide a rare opportunity to overcome both challenges by allowing assessment of how behaviour might be associated with post‐introduction displacement in the new environment. Our study leveraged a conservation translocation where threespine stickleback ( Gasterosteus aculeatus ) from seven source populations were introduced into one ‘recipient’ lake. Our study focused on comparisons of the genetics (source population ancestry) and behaviour (bold and exploratory) of individuals subsequently showing lower displacement (captured at the release site) versus greater displacement (captured farthest from the release site). Bold behaviour was assessed as latency to emerge from shelter, whereas exploratory behaviour was the number of unique sections crossed in an open field. Fish from the different source populations showed different bold and exploratory behaviours; yet those population‐level differences were not associated with post‐introduction displacement. At the individual level in the recipient lake, however, fish showing greater displacement 1 month after release were less exploratory than those showing lower displacement. This association between capture location and exploratory behaviour was no longer evident a year later, implying that the original association was related to initial post‐release displacement. Our work highlights how exploratory behaviour might be associated with displacement following introduction into a new environment. More broadly, our study provides rare insights into the extent to which post‐introduction displacement is predictable in a real‐world setting, and it also underscores the value of conducting experimental manipulations in nature.
Heckley et al. (Wed,) studied this question.