I've long been interested in how individual differences in personality among members of the same species (conspecifics) can influence their behavior in social and non-social situations.1 Nowadays, more and more researchers are talking about and trying to understand how individual personalities influence behavior. It is fairly routine and very important for understanding patterns of social behavior and in conservation efforts. Individuals and the variation among them can have huge ecological impacts and conservation implications. Anthropomorphism also favors coexistence and mutualism rather than domination.
I recently wrote an essay titled Colorado Wolves Receive Mixed Hellos and Muddy Media in which I commented that what especially interested me was that the five wolves who were initially released seemed to have individual personalities. I wondered if and how these differences might factor into how well they would do in their new homes.2
For example, would bold or curious wolves travel further, take more risks, and get into more "trouble" than shy wolves? If bold pack leaders get killed, would their packs disband? Would wolves living near cougars become more daring and take more risks?
Shortly after I posted, I received a very interesting, important, and detailed email about personality and conservation from field researcher Karen Owens. I was moved by what she wrote and was glad she could answer a few questions about this growing field of research.
Marc Bekoff: Why are you so interested in the importance of individual personalities and conservation?
Karen Owens: I find the study of individual wildlife personalities to be endlessly fascinating.3 The dynamics between individual personalities, the environment, and the people who inhabit that environment are incredibly powerful and complex. An animal's personality influences the choices they make, how much risk is tolerable, how to navigate relationships, and how to manage and adapt to the pressures of their environment. Taking the time to research and understand these dynamics should also influence how we strategize and prioritize our conservation efforts. Individuals of the same species will have different types of responses to any one conservation strategy, which can dramatically affect the success of the conservation effort as a whole. Incorporating this information can serve as a huge benefit to the field of conservation.
MB: How do your interests relate to your background?
KO: I've spent the last 25 years immersed in the world of dog training and behavior. However, I didn't learn about temperament until I had been training dogs for approximately 10 years. Understanding an individual dog's underlying temperament created a complete paradigm shift in my understanding of behavior in general.
Temperament is a critical component which gives a more complete understanding and appreciation for animal behavior. There are many parallels between understanding the temperament of dogs and understanding the personality of wildlife. With both, I feel strongly that we cannot know the whole animal and the choices they makes until we understand their personality or temperament.
MB: Who do you hope to reach out to about these most important topics?
KO: It is so important for agencies, universities, and conservation nonprofits to invest in research investigating individual wildlife personalities. This research can offer valuable insight into how specific behavior is shaped by conservation efforts and environmental stressors that can help practitioners strategize for more success. I feel this is a critical component that doesn't get enough attention. Incorporating this knowledge into the planning and adaptive management of any conservation project could decrease overall frustration and project costs while increasing the potential for success.
MB: What are some of the major topics you consider?
KO: I'm particularly fascinated with how individual wildlife personalities influence both species reintroductions and human-wildlife conflict. For example, when species are reintroduced to an area from which they've been removed, the personality of an individual animal can have a significant effect on survival. An animal with a bold personality is more likely to take risks and explore a novel environment.
One might think this would be a huge benefit when an animal is dropped into an entirely new home range; however, boldness can lead to an increased risk for predation and a lower survival rate (Stamps, 2007; Bombieri et al., 2021).
Bold personalities are also linked to increased human-wildlife conflict, habituating more quickly to people, reduced avoidance of human activity, longer travel distances, and lower flight levels (Bombieri et al., 2021; Hertel et al., 2019; Hertel et al., 2020 Brooks et al., 2020; Robertson, 2018). In contrast, animals with shyer personalities are linked to more predictable behavior patterns, avoidance of human areas, and less risk of predation. Animals with shyer personalities also vary their habitat to avoid human areas, disperse smaller distances, and maintain greater flight distances (Bombieri et al., 2022; Réale and Festa-Bianchet, 2003; Toscano et al., 2016; Found and St. Clair, 2018). Based on this information, understanding personalities and the individuals who have bold versus shy personalities can be significant in understanding which animals are most likely to survive a relocation effort.
Two current examples come to mind. Beavers are frequently recommended for relocation as a non-lethal strategy to remove them from a conflict situation into areas that need the benefits of beaver wetlands (Pollock et al., 2017). Success is difficult in these scenarios, frequently due to a high mortality rate (Pollock et al., 2017; McKinstry and Anderson, 2002). I often wonder if success could be increased by analyzing beaver personalities before relocation and using this information to help strategize for the relocation.
Another important example to consider is the group of 10 recently released wolves in Colorado. I am also extremely curious if understanding the individual personalities would help understand their dispersal and survival patterns, as well as their likelihood to engage or avoid conflict in human areas. Similar research was conducted with brown bears in Sweden, which led to valuable insights linking individual movement with personality and behavioral trends (Hertel et al., 2019; Hertel et al., 2020).
The more I consider the implications of personality research, the more questions I have about how we can use this information to understand wildlife behavior with the increasing pressures of climate change and human encroachment.
MB: How do your ideas differ from those of traditional conservation?
KO: Traditional conservation is focused on populations and species. I am curious about individual personalities and how they influence that individual's choices, which can certainly have an effect on family groups and other individuals within a geographic range. In my opinion, both areas of research are critical to understanding wildlife behavior.
MB: Are you hopeful that as people learn more about the importance of individual personalities and temperament in conservation, they will come to value every individual's life more than before?
KO: I think it's vitally important to value and take time to understand the lives, choices, and pressures of individuals. It's my sincere hope this research will be appreciated for its insight and that it will be actively incorporated into ongoing conservation efforts.
References
In conversation with Karen Owens. Karen brings more than 25 years of animal behavior experience to conservation research. She has been the Director of Behavior at two animal shelters and specializes in temperament, sociability, and aggression. She spent many years training service and therapy dogs and has been an accomplished Petfinder Foundation featured speaker at events across the US and Canada. Most recently, Karen has been actively involved in research on beavers, falcons, owls, passerines, hummingbirds, pikas, mountain goats, and big horn sheep.
3) For purposes of this discussion, the words "personality" (The enduring characteristics and behavior that comprise a person’s unique adjustment to life, including major traits, interests, drives, values, self-concept, abilities, and emotional patterns.") and "temperament" ("Biologically based individual differences in reactivity as well as the regulation of that reactivity.") are used interchangeably as they often are in research reports.
Bekoff, Marc. Colorado Wolves Receive Mixed Hellos and Muddy Media. Psychology Today, December 26, 2023; Wolf Packs Suffer When Humans Kill Their Leaders; Wolves With a Parasite Become More Daring, Study Shows; Anthropomorphism Favors Coexistence, Not Deadly Domination.
Bekoff, Marc. (2024). The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy―and Why They Matter. New World Library.
Bombieri, G., Penteriani, V., Delgado, M. del M., Groff, C., Pedrotti, L., & Jerina, K. (2021). Towards understanding bold behaviour of large carnivores: The case of brown bears in human-modified landscapes. Animal Conservation, 24(5), 783–797. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12680
Brooks, J., Kays, R., & Hare, B. (2020). Coyotes living near cities are bolder: Implications for dog evolution and human-wildlife conflict. Behaviour, 157(3–4), 289–313. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539X-bja10002
Ferraro, Kristy. Conservation Science Must Value Individuals and Anthropomorphism. Psychology Today, October 19, 2023.
Found, R., & St. Clair, C. C. (2018). Personality influences wildlife responses to aversive conditioning. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 82(4), 747–755. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.21449
Hertel, A. G., Leclerc, M., Warren, D., Pelletier, F., Zedrosser, A., & Mueller, T. (2019). Don’t poke the bear: Using tracking data to quantify behavioural syndromes in elusive wildlife. Animal Behaviour, 147, 91–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.11.008
Hertel, A. G., Royauté, R., Zedrosser, A., & Mueller, T. (2021). Biologging reveals individual variation in behavioural predictability in the wild. Journal of Animal Ecology, 90(3), 723–737. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13406
McKinstry, M. and S. Anderson. 2002. Survival, Fates, and Success of Transplanted Beavers, Castor canadensis, in Wyoming. Canadian Field-Naturalist 116:60-68.
Pollock, M.M., G.M. Lewallen, K. Woodruff, C.E. Jordan and J.M. Castro (Editors) 2017. The Beaver Restoration Guidebook: Working with Beaver to Restore Streams, Wetlands, and Floodplains. Version 2.0. United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Portland, Oregon. 219 pp. https://www.fws.gov/oregonfwo/promo.cfm?id=177175812
Réale, D., Reader, S. M., Sol, D., McDougall, P. T., & Dingemanse, N. J. (2007). Integrating animal temperament within ecology and evolution. Biological Reviews, 82(2), 291–318. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-185X.2007.00010.x
Robertson, K. E. (2018). Boldness Behavior and Chronic Stress in Free-Ranging, Urban Coyotes (Canis latrans). (osu1543529587211372) [Doctoral Thesis, The Ohio State University]. OhioLINK. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_olink/r/1501/10?clear=10&p10_accession_num=osu1543529587211372
Stamps, J. A. (2007). Growth-mortality tradeoffs and ‘personality traits’ in animals. Ecology Letters, 10(5), 355–363.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01034.x
Toscano, B. J., Gownaris, N. J., Heerhartz, S. M., & Monaco, C. J. (2016). Personality, foraging behavior and specialization: Integrating behavioral and food web ecology at the individual level. Oecologia, 182(1), 55–69.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-016-3648-8
1) When I began studying nonhuman animals (animals) years ago, mainly wolves coyotes, and domestic dogs, talking about their individual personalities and their emotions was generally taboo, mainly because some people thought it was "anthropomorphic" to talk about bold, shy, or risk-averse or risk-taking individuals and the emotional states that were associated with these traits. In the mid-1960s, Dr. Jane Goodall famously made talking about individual personalities and emotions in the chimpanzees she and her research teams an acceptable practice, but not without some battles with her mentors.
2) Part of my research on wild coyotes focused on this question, specifically how well coyotes displaying different personalities functioned in their pack and when they went off on their own, and any information that can be used to give each and every individual wolf the best life possible must be used on their behalf.
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Andrew Mitrovica
Mort Laitner
Nikkei Editorial
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Rami G Khouri
visit website
