Personality Traits in Atlantic Spotted Dolphins (Stenella Frontalis): Syndromes and Predictors of Neophilia

Personality is defined as inter-individual variation of behavioral traits while
maintaining intra-individual stability. The focus of this study was to observe distinct
personality trait categories, establish baseline personality trait phenotypes for the juvenile
population, and compare the personality phenotypes between different categories, such as
sex or generation. Three personality traits were studied—sociability, curiousity, and
boldness—based on the percentage of time individuals spent with conspecifics, human
researchers, and their mothers, respectively. The surveyed individuals significantly
varied positively and negatively from the means of each trait, and no significant
difference for any trait was found between males and females, or across time periods. A
moderately strong correlation was discovered between two personality traits, boldness
and curiousity, suggesting a personality syndrome. The second primary goal was to use
the aforementioned baseline to determine if personality traits can be used to predict neophilic behavior specific to human-dolphin communication research. Six of the study
subjects were more prone than their peers to engage with the two-way work, and these
individuals were more bold—spent less time with their mothers—than the other subjects.
This suggests that boldness has some predictive capabilities towards this type of
neophilia.