Research report 2010 - Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence (Seewiesen site)
Evolution of Animal Personality
Authors
Dingemanse, Niels Jeroen
Departments
Abteilung Verhaltensökologie und Evolutionäre Genetik (Kempenaers)
Max-Planck-Institut für Ornithologie, Seewiesen
Max-Planck-Institut für Ornithologie, Seewiesen
Summary
Birds and other animals differ in their behaviour like humans differ in personality. Certain individuals are consistently more aggressive, explorative, and bold compared to other animals from the same population, and this variation is in part genetically determined. The department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics studies individual variation in behaviour with the aim of i) revealing why animal personality has evolved and ii) learning how this variation might be maintained, using wild passerine bird populations (great tits) as an experimental model system.
