Humans are not the only animals with great personalities. Individual traits, temperaments, and coping styles have been observed among a wide variety of animals, including sea anemones, fish, birds, mammals, spiders, and lizards. In fact, there are some experts who think that personality exists throughout the animal kingdom.
It seems that squirrels are no exception. More than three years of research among the terrestrial squirrel golden mantle of the Rocky Mountain (Callospermophilus lateralis) has revealed four main personality traits, including boldness, aggressiveness, level of activity, and sociability.
These traits are also seen among other ground squirrels, such as yellow-bellied groundhogs (Marmot flaviventer), Siberian Squirrels (Tamias sibiricus), and the Belding ground squirrels (Urocitellus beldingi), and appear to have a strong impact on how an individual chooses their ecological niche and uses its resources.
Ground-mantled golden-mantled squirrels that are bolder, for example, move faster and tend to maintain a larger range of nuclei than the colder ones.
Individual choices like this help to have an effect on the overall structure of the environment, and yet the role that personality plays in shaping habitat preferences has only been explored among a handful of species.
The most active American red squirrels, for example, are also more likely to travel farther and cross into the territory of other red squirrels, although this species is generally considered asocial.
“This adds to the small but growing number of studies that show people are important,” says wildlife ecologist Jaclyn Aliperti of the University of California, Davis, and lead author of the study.
“Taking personality into account in wildlife management can be especially important when predicting wildlife responses to new conditions, such as changes or habitat destruction due to human activity.”
Identifying personality traits among animals is a complicated business that requires gathering a lot of data.
“Personality is a subjective word to which many can relate, but in our field a behavior cannot be constituted as a certain type of personality without defining it and proving statistically that individuals constantly show the same behavior over and over again. another, “Aliperti told ScienceAlert.
Over the years, scientists have developed several standardized ways to quantify animal personality traits, and four of these tests were used for the current study of gold-mantled squirrels.
The first experiment with terrestrial squirrels was an open field test, where wild squirrels were caught in the wild and placed in a closed box with holes and cut-out lines. Their response to out-of-the-box movement and their exploration of the holes were observed to determine the squirrel’s tendencies toward movement and research.
The second test inserted a mirror into the box so that researchers could see how individuals responded to another “other” of their kind (squirrels cannot be recognized in reflexes). This informed the squirrel’s sociability and aggression.
In the third test, the researchers quietly and slowly approached individuals in the wild to see how long it took them to escape. This is a common way to determine an individual’s shyness.
And in the final test, the squirrels were trapped in a simple trap that does them no physical harm to measure the squirrel’s tendency to stay calm.
A mirror simulation experiment. (Jaclyn Aliperti / UC Davis)
These experiments were carried out over three summers in the squirrel home areas and were repeated among the same individuals several times when possible.
Examining their data, the authors found no exploratory-type traces of personality among squirrels, although it is possible that this trait can be identified by different tests. All other major behavioral categories were present.
In the end, the authors found squirrels that scored higher for daring personality types and active personality types seemed to explore larger nuclear areas than the more shy and less active people. But these more prominent squirrels did not necessarily have larger domestic areas.
“Predation is a major source of mortality for golden-mantled ground squirrels, and bolder individuals are, by definition, more prone to risk,” the authors explain, “so it is possible that more timid individuals may restrict movement. to familiar and safe areas, while the boldest individuals regularly venture into the riskiest areas, thus expanding their main area by using habitat spots that the most timid individuals avoid. “
Meanwhile, squirrels with more aggressive personality types exhibited larger domestic areas and larger nuclear zones. They also dominated the rocky poles. As a result, researchers think it is this particular trait that pushes the species into new ranks.
Those individuals who scored highest on all four personality traits had more poles, higher housing ranges, and larger nuclear areas compared to those who scored the lowest on all traits.
“It is not uncommon for more active, bold, and aggressive individuals to tend to have greater access to positions, as it is commonly believed that these types of behavior, which are often correlated as proactive or“ early ”behavioral syndromes, show a greater use of resources and space, ”the authors write.
But what is surprising is how social some of these proactive individuals seem to be. Similar to red squirrels, squirrels with golden mantle are also considered asocial.
In fact, the best hangers were often held by those who scored the highest in relation to sociability. Even for antisocial creatures, being social can have its advantages.
“[P]more sociable squirrels are likely to be more likely to actively search [their own kind], increasing the likelihood with which they share overlapping domestic intervals and therefore resources such as perches, ”the authors suggest.
But animal personality is a hard science, Aliperti tells ScienceAlert. It depends on their roots, whether researchers classify observations into animals, which means we can never be sure if there are other traits or behaviors that we are missing.
However, if we completely ignore the animal personality, we will certainly lose a large part of the image.
The study was published in Animal behavior.