2023 Author: Bryan Walter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 22:24
Finnish scientists have been able to describe the individual character traits of the semi-free Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), who work closely with people in logging. As reported in an article published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the personality of animals can be described by three parameters: attentiveness, sociality and aggressiveness.
Personality is determined by individual behavioral characteristics inherent in the individual - stable in the context of time or a specific situation. It is believed that for the development of personality traits, an animal must have developed cognitive abilities and be social - for example, in addition to humans, character traits can also be found in other primates.
Among mammals, elephants are distinguished by high social interaction between individuals and with humans, as well as rather developed cognitive abilities: in a new work, a group of biologists led by Mirkka Lahdenperä from the University of Turku studied character traits in them. To do this, scientists for three years interviewed elephant drovers working in logging in Myanmar, where elephants are used to transport logs. In their free time, elephants roam freely in a specially designated area (semi-free content).
The drivers provided information on the behavior of 257 elephants (150 females and 107 males). To do this, they filled out questionnaires in which they noted how often a particular individual shows a certain pattern of behavior: for example, how active, friendly, aggressive it is towards other individuals or the driver, and also how often it is characterized by frequent mood swings. In total, the scientists collected 690 assessments from different drovers who worked with the elephants.
The analysis of the survey results allowed scientists to combine the studied patterns of behavior and identify three main features that characterize the personality of an individual: attentiveness (how well the animal interacts with the environment), sociality (how an animal interacts with relatives and people) and aggressiveness (how often an individual exhibits aggressive behavior in relation of relatives and people). This characteristic did not depend on the sex of the individual: three traits could be distinguished in all individuals, regardless of their sex.
Monitoring the personal characteristics of endangered animals is very important: taking into account individual characteristics can help specialists develop effective strategies not only for caring for individuals, but also for their successful reproduction and other types of social interaction.
Individual character traits are also found in domestic animals (for example, pessimists and optimists are among cows). And besides mammals, personality can also be seen in fish: for example, sharks can be distinguished by how bold they are.
