Amazing stuff! Even fruit flies have a personality! They live only about 40-50 days.
"... My labmates and I repeated that process again and again, ultimately measuring the behavior of 900 individual flies daily. ...
I had been excited to work with MAPLE, my lab’s robot, to automate the first and last steps of the process. MAPLE would grab individual flies, safely move them into their own tiny mazes, and back out after I’d measured their behaviors. ...
All animals – from the smallest worm to the biggest whale – have personalities: individual behavioral preferences that remain more or less stable throughout their lifetime. In Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit flies I worked with, individuality is evident in simple binary behaviors. Individual flies show a preference for turning left or right, choosing a hot or cool environment, preferring brightly lit areas or the shade, and many other idiosyncrasies.
Both nature and nurture influence animal personality. The environment during development can play a crucial role in some instances. In others, genes inherited from parents can drive preferences. ..."
Still looking for a Halloween costume? What a personality! 😊
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