Shy males and divorce make for catchy headlines. The study title uses actually "boldness" not shyness!
However, there are some doubts about this research despite observational data ranging several decades. There is a good chance that the albatross researchers were tainted by anthropomorphic thinking.
These "divorces" appear to be forced by stronger males! Plus, the studied small population has a surplus of males.
"... But on rare occasions, an albatross pair will “divorce” — a term ornithologists use for instances when one partner leaves the pair for another mate while the other partner remains in the flock. Divorce rates vary widely across the avian world, and the divorce rate for wandering albatrosses is relatively low. ...
The researchers say their study is the first to link personality and divorce in a wild animal species. ...
“Instead we find the shy divorce more because they are more likely to be forced to divorce by a more competitive intruder. ...
The new study concentrates on a population of wandering albatross that return regularly to Possession Island in the Southern Indian Ocean to breed. This population has been the focus of a long-term study dating back to the 1950s ...
This particular population is skewed toward more male individuals than females ... Those individuals that divorced were more likely to do so again and again. ...
“We know that personality predicts divorce in human beings, and it would be intuitive to make the link between personality and divorce in wild populations.”"
The researchers say their study is the first to link personality and divorce in a wild animal species. ...
“Instead we find the shy divorce more because they are more likely to be forced to divorce by a more competitive intruder. ...
The new study concentrates on a population of wandering albatross that return regularly to Possession Island in the Southern Indian Ocean to breed. This population has been the focus of a long-term study dating back to the 1950s ...
This particular population is skewed toward more male individuals than females ... Those individuals that divorced were more likely to do so again and again. ...
“We know that personality predicts divorce in human beings, and it would be intuitive to make the link between personality and divorce in wild populations.”"
From the abstract:
"Personality predicts divorce rates in humans, yet how personality traits affect divorce in wild animals remains largely unknown. In a male-skewed population of wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans), we showed that personality predicts divorce; shyer males exhibited higher divorce rates than bolder males but no such relationship was found in females. We propose that divorce may be caused by the intrusion of male competitors and shyer males divorce more often because of their avoidance of territorial aggression, while females have easier access to mates regardless of their personality. Thus, personality may have important implications for the dynamics of social relationships."
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