The landscape of fear framework posits that prey animals trade off between resource gain and safety when selecting habitat. Strategies for balancing this tradeoff vary among individuals, however, with personality acting as a potentially important factor driving differences. Animals are faced with real predation risk, perceived predation risk, and competition when selecting habitat in landscapes of fear, but few studies have simultaneously measured the effects of these three factors on habitat use, and none have done so while accounting for individual variability. Here, we contribute to the landscape of fear framework by assessing personality-driven tradeoffs in second-order (home range level) and third-order (within home range level) habitat use. We conducted a large-scale field study testing the personality of free-ranging deer mice Peromyscus maniculatus, white-footed mice Peromyscus leucopus, and southern red-backed voles Myodes gapperi in Maine (USA). We mapped individual space use and determined small mammal population numbers using capture–mark–recapture data, measured microhabitat features, and monitored terrestrial and avian predators to quantify competition, perceived risk (i.e. habitat cover), and real risk across individual areas of use (second-order) as well as across used trap sites (third-order). We included 133 deer mice, 69 white-footed mice, and 316 voles to assess relationships between habitat and personality and found evidence of personality–habitat relationships at both orders. Specifically, boldness, activity, and stress coping ability covary with predator presence; boldness, activity, and aggressiveness covary with competition levels; and activity and boldness covary with levels of microhabitat cover. Overall, we found relationships between personality and levels of competition, perceived risk, and real risk within habitats used by small mammals, providing empirical evidence of intraspecific variation in the landscape of fear. These findings highlight the role of personality in mediating habitat use at multiple scales, offering a potential mechanism driving personality-mediated survival rates.
