An overview of animal personality studies

Abstract

There has been a recent surge of interest in behavioral variation among individuals, which has been largely overlooked in classical behavioral ecology. Whereas classical behavioral ecology assumes the optimal behavior of animals, animal personality studies hold that behavioral plasticity is limited. This idea has led to two concepts that characterize animal personality studies: personality, which refers to repeated individual variation among individuals; and behavioral syndrome, the correlation among behavioral traits. Animal personality studies seek to understand why and how animal personality and behavioral syndromes are maintained, and to what extent personality explains the variation in ecological traits (e.g., predation and dispersal) and fitness. In this review, I introduce the concepts of animal personality and behavioral syndrome and then summarize the relationships between personality and ecological traits, which vary among traits and taxa. Finally, by pointing out the significance and challenges of animal personality studies, I discuss future avenues of study in this area as a part of behavioral ecology, ecology, and evolutionary biology.