S2E9 Andy Sih on Animal Personality, Behavioral Skill, and 'Big Picture' Thinking

The Animal Behavior Podcast

In this episode, Amy speaks with guest Andy Sih, a Distinguished ​​Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy within the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis.

They open by discussing the concept of animal personalities (a.k.a 'behavioral syndromes' or 'consistent individual differences in behavior'). Then, they chat about fear generalization in animals, and they discuss how and why human-induced rapid environmental change threatens some species more than others. After the break, they discuss international collaboration, integrative approaches to behavioral questions, and the value of 'big picture' thinking.

This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Jason Dinh (@jasonpdinh), a PhD Candidate at Duke University. He uses physiology and physics to understand how sexually selected signals are used and perceived, exploring proximate mechanisms through an evolutionary lens. Learn more about Jason's work here.

Papers relevant to today's show:

1. Behavioral syndromes: an ecological and evolutionary overview 2004 Trends in Ecology & Evolution
2. On the importance of individual differences in behavioural skill 2019 Animal Behaviour
3. Integrating social networks, animal personalities, movement ecology and parasites: a framework with examples from a lizard 2018 Animal Behaviour

Credits:

The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by a team of animal behavior researchers and audio professionals. Come meet us here! We receive production support from the Cornell Broadcast studio directed by Bert Odom-Reed, and financial support from the Animal Behavior Society.