How long does it take? Reliable personality assessment based on common behaviour in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus)
Individual variation in behaviour has been shown to have important ecological and evolutionary consequences. Research on animal personality has therefore received considerable attention, yet some methodological issues remain unresolved. We tested whether assessing personality by coding common behaviours is as time-consuming method as some researchers believe it to be. Altogether, 300 hours of observation were collected […]
Investigating the Behavior and Personality Structure of the Aldabra Tortoise during Human Interactions and Training Events
Human–animal interaction (HAI) can be valuable for captive animals, and many zoo-housed species benefit from interactions with their keepers. There is also an increasing body of evidence that some animal species possess personalities that are temporally consistent. However, the majority of zoo research, particularly on personality and HAI, traditionally has focused on mammals, and there […]
The Welfare of Invertebrate Animals
This book is devoted to the welfare of invertebrates, which make up 99% of animal species on earth. Addressing animal welfare, we do not often think of invertebrates; in fact we seldom consider them to be deserving of welfare evaluation. And yet we should. Welfare is a broad concern for any animal that we house, […]
Caretaker Score Reliability for Personality Assessment of Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)
The evaluation of zoo animals’ personalities can likely lead to a range of benefits, including improving breeding success, creating stable social groups, and designing and developing environmental enrichment programmes. The goal of this study was to use caretakers scores to evaluate personality in bottlenose dolphins and to assess the reliability of scores within each rater […]
Personality traits modulate stress responses after enclosure change of captive capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus)
Husbandry procedures may cause behavioral and physiological changes to animals living in captivity. However, an individual’s reaction is not uniform and may be related to different coping strategies. In this study, we analyzed whether and how 12 adult captive capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) varying in four personality axes (‘Feeding’, ‘Sociability’, ‘Exploration’, and ‘Activity’) differed in […]
From the individual to the population–and back again? Emphasising the role of the individual in animal welfare science
During the past decades, the study of “animal personalities” has gained increasing importance in the field of behavioural and evolutionary ecology, thereby contributing to a focus shift from the population to the individual in various research disciplines. Against this background, the overall idea of the present review is to transfer the personality concept from behavioural […]
Preliminary model of personality structure in captive red pandas (Ailurus fulgens)
Research on animal personality has revealed that it is stable and contextually consistent and has a significant impact on an animal’s physiology and psychological wellbeing. Personality, sometimes referred to as behavioral syndromes, personality dimensions, or temperament, impacts health, reproductive success, and survival, and is thus an important factor to consider when assessing the welfare of […]
Personality in captive killer whales (Orcinus orca): A rating approach based on the five-factor model
The comparative study of animal personality has received great interest in recent years. Some studies have analyzed personalities in cetaceans (exclusively in dolphins), but none have analyzed the factorial structure of personality of any species in this order. Our objective was to evaluate a sample of captive killer whales (n = 24) adapting one of […]
Animal personality due to social niche specialisation
The existence of ‘animal personality’, i.e. consistent individual differences in behaviour across time and contexts, is an evolutionary puzzle that has recently generated considerable research interest. Although social factors are generally considered to be important, it is as yet unclear how they might select for personality. Drawing from ecological niche theory, we explore how social […]
Unravelling animal personalities: how and why individuals consistently differ
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