The Use of Personality Assessments in Designing Environmental Enrichment for Garnett\u27s Bushbabies (\u3ci\u3eOtolemur garnettii\u3c/i\u3e)

Recently the study of animal personality has become an important and credible topic of research and a number of studies have revealed personality traits in a variety of species. The consideration of individual animal personality traits is important for animal management and welfare. For example, ensuring inter-individual compatibility in group housing animals may serve to ensure the safety of the whole group. To date, no formal research has been conducted on whether the assessment of individual personality traits could be used as a tool for individualizing environmental enrichment interventions. The goal of environmental enrichment is to increase the rate of species-typical behaviors in captive animals. Prior research has, for the most part, implemented enrichment strategies genetically, exposing all animals to the same intervention (de Azevedo, et al., 2007). However, individual animals have unique problems or preferences, and could benefit from enrichment plans tailored specifically for them. Testing multiple enrichment options with all individuals of a large group would be very time-consuming and cost-prohibitive. A possible solution is to assess the different personality traits within the group of animals, and provide various enrichment interventions specific to these individual differences. Thus, the current study examined whether certain enrichment options are more effective for particular personality traits within a prosimian species. Personality traits often Garnett\u27s bushbabies were assessed and the subjects were categorized as either high or low on five personality factors: Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. All ten subjects were exposed to five different environmental enrichment interventions. The effectiveness of each enrichment intervention was assessed by examining stereotypic behaviors before and after exposure to the enrichment interventions. All five enrichment interventions generally improved animal welfare by increasing frequency of species-typical behavior across the subjects. In addition, some of the enrichment interventions differentially benefited the subjects based on their individual personality traits. For example, following being housed with an unfamiliar conspecific, highly agreeable (more affiliative and friendly) subjects significantly decreased their maladaptive behaviors. Overall, this study suggests that individualized plans of enrichment related to personality differences are beneficial to a prosimian species

How Selective is Social Learning in Dolphins?

Social learning is an important aspect of dolphin social life and dolphin behavioral development. In addition to vocal social learning, dolphins discover behaviors for foraging, play, and social interactions by observing other members of their social group. But dolphins neither indiscriminately observe nor mindlessly mimic other dolphins. To the contrary, dolphin calves are quite selective in their choices of who to observe and/or imitate. Calves are most likely to learn foraging behaviors from their mothers, but they are more likely to watch and reproduce the play behaviors of other calves than the play behaviors of adult dolphins (including their mothers). But not all calves are equally likely to be good models. Instead, calves are more likely to observe and mimic the behaviors of other calves that are producing either novel behaviors or more complex forms of behaviors that the observing calf already knows. As a result, there is a general tendency for calves to watch and learn from calves that are older than they are. But differences in age are only part of the story. In fact, dolphin personality may be more important than dolphin age in determining the efficacy of a model

Does Personality Similarity In Bottlenose Dolphin Pairs Influence Dyadic Bond Characteristics?

Social structures are critical to the success of many species and have repercussions on health, well-being, and adaptation, yet little is known about the factors which shape these structures aside from ecology and life history strategies. Dyadic bonds are the basis of all social structures; however, mechanisms for formations of specific bonds or patterns in which individuals form which types of bonds have yet to be demonstrated. There is a variety of evidence indicating personality may be a factor in shaping bonds, but this relationship has not been explored with respect to bond components and is yet to be demonstrated in dolphins. This study utilizes a captive population in a naturalistic environment to test for correlation between similarity within the dyad along each personality factor and the strength of the dyad\u27s bond characteristics. Personality was assessed using a Five Factor Model questionnaire. Dyadic bond strength and characteristic qualities were determined through an exploratory factor analysis to group behaviors recorded via underwater opportunistic focal-follow video. Discovered bond components differed from previous studies and were termed Affiliative Support, Sociosexual, and Conflict Play. Individuals who differed in Extraversion and Neuroticism and were similar in Conscientiousness displayed greater levels of bonding. This study expands our understanding of the formation of bonds between individuals and the evolution of social structure. Furthermore, it better equips us for making informed environmental policy decisions and improving captive animal care

Do Pinnipeds Have Personality? Broad Dimensions and Contextual Consistency of Behavior in Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) and California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus)

Personality has now been studied in species as diverse as chimpanzees and cuttlefish, but marine mammals remain vastly underrepresented in this area. A broad range of traits have been assessed only once in each of bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions, while consistent individual differences in a few specific behaviors have been identified in grey seals. Furthermore, the context component of definitions of personality is not often assessed, despite evidence that animals may show individual patterns of behavioral consistency across contexts. The current study therefore aimed to use behavioral coding to assess underlying personality factors and consistency across contexts in two marine mammal species: California sea lions and harbor seals. In both species, two personality factors were extracted using exploratory factor analysis. Both were broadly similar across species; the first, Boldness, resembled human Extraversion, and to some extent Openness, with sea lions exhibiting a greater social component. The second factor was labeled Routine Activity, and may contain some Conscientiousness-like traits. Species-specific patterns were also identified for interactive behaviors across two contexts. However, there was substantial individual variation in the frequency of these behaviors, as well as some animals who did not conform to group-level trends. This study therefore provides novel evidence for broad personality factors and both groupand individual-level patterns of contextual consistency in two pinniped species

Reflections: Students\u27 Tribute to Stan Kuczaj (1950-2016)

On April 14th, 2016, Animal Behavior and Cognition lost its Editor-in-Chief. But the scientific community and the friends and colleagues of Stanley ‘Stan’ Kuczaj III lost so much more. As many know, Stan began his career in Developmental Psychology, making enormous contributions in the area of language development, but became best known for his many innovative contributions in the area of marine mammal behavior. Stan founded Animal Behavior and Cognition because he was deeply passionate about research with a broad range of topics concerning animal behavior, animal cognition, and animal welfare. He was equally passionate about the idea that science should be accessible to all, and that accessibility should not come at a financial burden to researchers. The current editorial team is committed to carrying on Stan’s vision for the journal, and we believe that its continuation will pay homage to Stan as a researcher, and as a leader within the scientific community. However, for the next few pages, we wish to pay special tribute to Stan as a mentor, as this role was perhaps the one that was most pivotal in defining who he was as a scientist, colleague, and friend. We take comfort in the fact that Stan’s memory will live on in the legacy of his mentees, many of whom became cherished friends and colleagues. Below you will find reflections from several of these former students who were given the difficult task of trying to summarize the most meaningful aspect of Stan’s influence on their personal and professional development. Although no few words could summarize the impact of someone as enigmatic as Stan, we hope that these reflections will contribute to a full and nuanced tribute to the man he was

Engaging Undergraduates in Comparative Psychology: A Case Study

With many comparative psychologists teaching at small colleges and universities where resources are limited, maintaining a traditional animal laboratory housing rats or pigeons is not realistic for many of these researchers. One way to overcome this lack of overhead costs and extensive lab space, is to forge collaborations with local zoos and aquariums. Zoo and aquarium research projects provide a way to examine a wide range of species, which is an important tenet within the field of comparative psychology. Furthermore, many undergraduates are innately attracted to the prospect of working with exotic animals. Here, we propose utilizing visitor behavior research as a means to provide undergraduates with research experience within the field comparative psychology, as well as expose the general public to animal behavior research

Applying the Interpersonal Circumplex to the Behavioral Styles of Dogs and Cats

The present study examined the viability of the interpersonal circumplex, which was designed to examine human social behavior, as a model for considering the behavioral styles of dogs and cats. This was accomplished by recruiting 555 pet owners to report on the behavioral styles of their pets as well as their own interpersonal styles. The instrument used to assess the behavioral styles of household pets conformed to the expected circular structure for both dogs (CI = 0.93, P\u3c0.001) and cats (CI=0.93, P\u3c0.001) which suggests that the instrument is suitable for use with at least these non-human species. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses found that owners reported more positive attitudes toward their pets when the behavioral styles of their pets complemented their own interpersonal styles. The owners of both dogs and cats were more satisfied when they perceived their pets as exhibiting a level of warmth that was similar to their own but this tendency was especially strong for cat owners. For dominance, however, cat owners reported more positive attitudes toward their pets when there was reciprocity between their own interpersonal styles and the perceived behavioral styles of their pets (e.g., dominant cat owners reported more positive attitudes toward their pets when they perceived their pets as submissive). Complementarity on the dominance dimension did not emerge as a significant predictor of positive attitudes toward dogs. (C) 2010 Elsevier By. All rights reserved