Biology Weekly Seminar - Raine Kortet

Ecological Insights into Animal Personalities

Animal personalities have lately been a topic of intensive research in ecology and evolutionary biology. Traditionally, predation is considered the major cause of mortality for bolder, risk-taking individuals, and thus identified as a key factor in the evolution of personality traits. However, recent suggestions imply that also parasitism plays a role in the ecology and evolution of animal personalities. In general, the stronger the additive environmental risks by parasitism and predation are, the more strictly individuals are predicted to follow their optimal behavioral trajectories. In my talk, I will be presenting recent ideas on this topic, and also showing examples on field crickets and fishes.