Even Spiders Have Personalities
Scientists studying animals from virtually every niche of the bestial kingdom have found evidence of distinctive personalities — bundled sets of behaviors, quirks, preferences and pet peeves that remain stable over time and across settings. They have found stylistic diversity in chimpanzees, monkeys, barnacle geese, farm minks, blue tits and great tits, bighorn sheep, dumpling squid, pumpkinseed sunfish, zebra finches, spotted hyenas, even spiders and water striders, to name but a few. They have identified hotheads and tiptoers, schmoozers and loners, divas, dullards and fearless explorers, and they have learned that animals, like us, often cling to the same personality for the bulk of their lives.
Full article on animal personality research.
Spiders? Personalities? But, of course. They have biting personalities.
What’s implied by this post is that our personality is in our genes. Probably true. But the premise needs to be made explicit.
That suggests if you inadvertently acquire a pet with a bad personality — sort of like a dog that barks too much or a cat sharpens its claws on your furniture — you’re stuck with your pet’s bad behavior for the rest of its life.
One night I was driving home really late and turned on an AM talk show program called Coast to Coast. The topic of the show was how politicians are descended from reptiles.
I wonder how you would test that hypothesis.
Speaking of reptiles, Virginia, I did not see snakes on the list. I would think they would have hugging personalities.
I assume the monkeys have an aping personality.