Do polar bears have personalities? And if they do, how can we assess them?
That’s what University of Winnipeg psychology and biology student Kerianne Chant has been researching the last two years with the Assiniboine Park Zoo.
检查这些个体差异使动物看护者不仅可以更好地了解熊，而且可以更好地预测动物的行为。
Kerianne Chant
“Individual behavioural differences in animals or personalities are now widely recognized within biology as an important aspect to investigate when trying to understand animal behaviour,” said Chant. “Our study assessed personalities in nine polar bears (Ursus maritimus) housed at the Assiniboine Park Zoo using a five-factor personality assessment.”
Last year, Chant was the President of the Wildlife Society at UWinnipeg and, through her extensive involvement, received many volunteer opportunities.
在参观Assiniboine Park动物园和音乐学院之后，她遇到了保护与研究主任Stephen Petersen博士，以及生物学系的兼职教师，他告诉她他们想做的项目。
“The conservation team at the Zoo noticed some pretty big individual differences between the bears that came into their care, in terms of management and social groups,” she said. “Some of the social groupings seemed to work better for others and staff wanted to know if there’s a way of assessing better care for the bears.”
Petersen says Chant’s expertise in psychology and animal behaviour has been a welcome addition to the team and that he’s enjoyed collaborating with her to better understand the polar bears they care for.
“The Zoo is always striving to make sure we provide the animals here with the highest level of care and to do that we are often looking for new ways to understand these animals and what we can do to ensure their well being,” said Petersen. “Testing the validity of using personality assessments to score animals is a very novel technique, but could provide us with more tools to keep bears happy and healthy. We are hoping to build on the work that Kerianne did and expand it to assessments of other bears in other facilities.”
多年来，Assiniboine Park动物园的保护与研究系指导了Uwinnipeg的几位出色荣誉学生，Petersen表示，他们很高兴能在该列表中加入颂歌。
“A defining trait of The University of Winnipeg is reflected each day in the research undertaken by students like Kerianne Chant,” said Dr. Jino Distasio, Vice-President of Research and Innovation, UWinnipeg. “This project highlights just how actively engaged our students are in undertaking work in the community that has impact and contributes to the skills needed for careers.”
Polar bear personalities
UWinnipeg student Kerianne Chant. Photo by Austin Day Photography.
“I want to see whether the big five personality factors — extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism — apply in assessing polar bear personalities.”
而solit北极熊ary for much of the year, Chant says some groups of bears, like males, are more social during the summer and fall within the western Hudson Bay population and along the Manitoba coast.
由于野生熊似乎有社会性，所以问题是：这在人类护理中的影响如何，尤其是在其与其他熊行为的个体差异上。
Chant’s thesis project, which she successfully defended this past April, used data gathered over the course of three years (2018-2020) and included nine polar bears, aged two to eight, housed at the Journey to Churchill exhibit.
她解释说：“ Assiniboine Park动物园的动物护理专业人员每年使用改良的五因素个性问卷对每只熊进行评分。”“每只熊的评分为7分：一只是一个准确的陈述，七个是一个非常不准确的陈述。”
三年数据的收获是，分配的分数在每年之间是高度可重复的，观察者在评估熊时非常一致。这表明我们使用的人格测试是准确的，并且可以建立一些东西。
Providing the best care
This research and the results will directly help the management of the polar bears at the Zoo.
“Examining these individual differences enables animal caretakers to not only better understand the bears, but better predict the behaviour of the animals,” Chant said. “If a polar bear is low in agreeableness, they may prefer to be housed with few other bears. However, there may be some polar bears who have high agreeableness and like being with other bears and engaging in social play.”
Chant说，这项研究一直持续到2021年，并将持续到未来。她最近在2021年的加拿大生态与进化会议上介绍了这一点，以及Uwinnipeg的第16届年度Randy Kobes本科生研讨会，她在生物学和环境科学类别中首次完成。
This research will not only help animals in zoos, but also can be used on wild animals. By having a reliable and repeatable method for assessing animal personalities, it may help experts proactively manage animal problems and minimize human-wildlife conflicts.
