Citation

Author Website

https://www.nathalie-sommer.com/

Thread

Karen A. Owens, Gosia Bryja, and Marc Bekoff, Wildlife conservation: The importance of individual personality traits and sentience

Abstract

The study of animal personality, or consistent individual behavioral differences, has faced numerous challenges since its inception, including terminological disputes, labor-intensive methodologies, and notable retractions. This commentary explores the mechanisms behind personality traits, questioning the link between personality and sentience, and highlights the bias towards megafauna in wildlife management. It underscores the ecological and ethical significance of considering arthropod personalities and the complexities of integrating personality into wildlife reintroductions. Caution is advised in generalizing personality effects, and the limitations of current measurement techniques are discussed, suggesting that personality traits should be one of many factors in comprehensive management strategies.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License

Author Biography

Nathalie Sommer is a PhD Candidate at the Yale School of the Environment. Her research is on arthropod functional roles, the influence of global change stressors, and scales of variation. Nathalie brings an eco-evolutionary perspective to conservation ethics with the goal of creating useful frameworks for practitioners. Website

DOI

10.51291/2377-7478.1846