Many researchers (and pet owners) would agree that animals have distinct personalities: they follow unique behavioral strategies and react in similar ways to a variety of circumstances. Scientists believe that these personality traits contribute to an animal’s ability to adapt to changing habitats and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, Germany has conducted research that supports this claim.
Urbanization has caused many species of animals to adjust their lifestyles as they have been uprooted from a natural environment. In cities, animals must learn new ways to gather food, protect themselves from danger, and find shelter. Scientists have found that these external changes resulted in internal changes to animals’ personalities.
Observing the European blackbird—which is historically a forest-dweller—researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology have been able to identify unique personality differences between urban-dwelling blackbirds and their country counterparts. For example, urban blackbirds migrate less in the winter, breed earlier, and live in higher densities. In order to test if environment affected personality, scientists collected nestlings from urban and rural environments and hand-reared them in identical conditions. Once the blackbirds matured to adulthood, the researchers presented them with foreign objects.
Interestingly, urban blackbirds were more hesitant to approach foreign objects and also tended to avoid unfamiliar objects. Since the birds’ individual conditions were identical after they were gathered as nestlings, scientists believe these differences to be intrinsic rather than being caused by the original urban or rural environment. Further investigation revealed that genes believed to be involved in shaping personality were structured differently in urban blackbirds as opposed to rural blackbirds. These findings are consistent with other studies as 27 out of 29 experiments have shown that urban animals behave differently than rural counterparts when responding to new stimuli. According to these studies, generations of living in urban or rural settings may affect animals in an evolutionary way.
The research conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology provides valuable insight into animal behavior and determining the factors that influence personality. As the world continues to change with advancing technologies, it is important to know how these transformations affect all of earth’s inhabitants and what steps need to be taken to make seamless transitions for all life forms.
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