The pace‐of‐life syndrome hypothesis (POLS) represents an attractive
theoretical framework suggesting that physiological and behavioural
traits have evolved together with environmental conditions and
life‐history strategies. POLS predicts that metabolic differences covary
with behavioural variation such that high metabolic rate is associated
with risk‐prone behaviour and a faster pace‐of‐life, whereas a low
metabolic rate is associated with risk‐averse behaviour and a slower
pace‐of‐life. We tested the POLS hypothesis in captive European Pied
Flycatchers during their first year by examining the relationship
between explorative behaviour and basal metabolic rate. Our results are
inconsistent with POLS. The positive association of explorative
behaviour with basal metabolic rate was not recovered for either sex,
possibly due to foraging conditions in the aviaries where control and
trial groups were fed twice a day, the birds' young age, developmental
plasticity, or a non‐existent syndrome.