Abstract
Personality, i.e. consistent between-individual differences in behaviour, has been documented in many species. Yet little is known about how males and females of long-lived, highly social species differ in their measures of personality structure. We investigated sex differences in the mean, variance, and covariance of three previously reported personality traits (Attentiveness, Sociability, Aggressiveness) in 150 female and 107 male Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) from a semi-captive population in Myanmar. These three personality traits were obtained by performing exploratory factor analysis on 28 behavioural items that had been rated by experienced elephant handlers. We found that males scored significantly higher on Aggressiveness and tended to score lower on Sociability than females. However, no sex difference was found in the mean scores of Attentiveness. Variances for the three personality traits did not differ between the sexes, suggesting that male and female elephants share the same range of personality variation. Likewise, trait covariances were similar between the sexes. While both sexes show complex sociality in the wild, female Asian elephants typically live in highly social family units, whereas male elephants’ social bonds are weaker. Males usually form dominance ranks by aggressive interactions, especially during musth. Our results on a large sample of individuals living in their natural environment are thus in agreement with elephant life-histories and parallel the findings of sex differences in other long-lived highly social species with similar life-histories.
Highlights
Many species show consistent between-individual differences in behaviour, termed personality[1,2]
We demonstrated that male and female elephants did not differ in personality structure
We started by conducting measurement invariance analysis between male and female elephants in a multi-group factor analysis framework[19]
Summary
Many species show consistent between-individual differences in behaviour, termed (animal) personality[1,2]. Personality studies sometimes focus only on male or female individuals of a species, even though behaviour and life-history can differ substantially between the sexes, leading to different selection pressures on male and female personality[5,6]. In Asian elephants, females are in general more social and gregarious than males[14], suggesting possible sex-specific differences in personality traits. Our aim in this study is to examine sex differences in detail in pre-determined personality traits in a population of semi-captive Asian elephants living in their natural habitat. This study provides an important addition to personality research, as it assesses sex differences in personality traits represented by 15 rated behaviours expressed among male and female elephants
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