Abstract
Animal personality research is receiving increasing interest from related fields, such as evolutionary personality psychology. By merging the conceptual understanding of personality, the contributions to both fields of research may be enhanced. In this study, we investigate animal personality based on the definition of personality traits as underlying dispositional factors, which are not directly measurable, but which predispose individuals to react through different behavioural patterns. We investigated the shyness-boldness continuum reflected in the consistency of inter-individual variation in behavioural responses towards novelty in 47 farmed American mink (Neovison vison), which were raised in identical housing conditions. Different stages of approach behaviour towards novelty, and how these related within and across contexts, were explored. Our experimental design contained four tests: two novel object tests (non-social contexts) and two novel animated stimuli tests (social contexts). Our results showed consistency in shyness measures across multiple tests, indicating the existence of personality in farmed American mink. It was found that consistency in shyness measures differs across non-social and social contexts, as well as across the various stages in the approach towards novel objects, revealing that different aspects of shyness exist in the farmed American mink. To our knowledge this is the first study to reveal aspects of the shyness-boldness continuum in the American mink. Since the mink were raised in identical housing conditions, inherited factors may have been important in shaping the consistent inter-individual variation. Body weight and sex had no effect on the personality of the mink. Altogether, our results suggest that the shyness-boldness continuum cannot be explained by a simple underlying dispositional factor, but instead encompasses a broader term of hesitating behaviour that might comprise several different personality traits.
Highlights
Animal personality is studied by measuring inter-individual variation in behavioural responses, which are consistent across time and contexts
It was found that consistency in shyness measures differs across non-social and social contexts, as well as across the various stages in the approach towards novel objects, revealing that different aspects of shyness exist in the farmed American mink
Our results contribute to the field of animal personality research by showing that different latencies are consistent across multiple novelty tests, indicating the existence of personality in farmed American mink
Summary
Animal personality is studied by measuring inter-individual variation in behavioural responses, which are consistent across time and contexts. As Coppens, Boer and Koolhaas [7] suggest, it might be helpful to merge the conceptual understanding of the terminology shared between the different fields in order for the research into animal personality to contribute to, as well as gain from, these other fields This might help to provide a framework for animal personality research, which could gain from a unification of the terminology and definitions for comparisons across studies [6,8]. Different behavioural measures are used to measure shy or bold behaviour, i.e. latencies in fish [16], the amount of novel objects explored in an arena in sheep [17] or activity levels when birds were confronted with a predator [18] These many different approaches to the investigation of the shyness-boldness continuum may lead to different conclusions of the overall consistency of shyness-boldness. We agree with Carter et al [12] on the importance of using multiple tests to measure aspects of animal personality and that the definition of shyness-boldness needs to be clear for comparisons across studies
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