Gibbons (family Hylobatidae) are small apes comprising lar gibbons (Hylobates spp.), crested gibbons (Nomascus spp.), siamangs (Symphalangus syndactus), and hoolocks (Hoolock spp.). These four genera are closely related to one another and to orangutans (Pongo spp.). Gibbon phylogeny and socioecology make them uniquely suited to improve our understanding of the origins of personality factors. Personality trait ratings of lar gibbons, crested gibbons, and siamangs-sufficient data on hoolocks were not available-were analyzed using exploratory factor analyses. All three genera possessed factors labeled Dominance, Extraversion, and Agreeableness. In addition, lar gibbons and siamangs possessed factors labeled Neuroticism and Conscientiousness, lar gibbons possessed a factor labeled Individualism, and crested gibbons possessed factors labeled Dyscontrol and Avoidance. Exploratory factor analysis of the combined data, which included hoolocks, revealed a Conscientiousness factor and four factors-Extraversion, Dominance, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism-that resembled four of the five orangutan personality factors. Genus- and family-level analyses revealed that better subjective well-being and health-both measured using informant ratings-were associated with higher sociability, emotional stability, and conscientiousness. Based on these results, we concluded that social group size and/or arboreality are related to factor structure, Conscientiousness evolved in hominoids 16-20 million years ago (much earlier than previous estimates), and that relationships in humans between personality and psychological and physical well-being have very early origins. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Despite growing recognition that spatial factors such as urbanisation and geographic region shape humanwildlife interactions, few studies have examined - on a large geographic scale - how spatial factors reflect the subjective human dimensions to those interactions, including public attitudes and self-reported encounters with wildlife. Understanding how spatial factors shape these dimensions may have implications for urban rewilding because they can reflect local tolerance of animals and may potentially predict human-wildlife interactions. We examined how urbanisation type and geographic region are related to people's attitudes, reported encounters (public feeding and bin-raiding), and reported use of control measures towards the world's most urbanised terrestrial carnivore, the red fox, Vulpes vulpes. Online survey data were obtained from 1275 participants in the United Kingdom. Reports of fox bin-raiding were associated with increased reports of wildlife feeding, more negative attitudes towards foxes, and greater reported use of professional and do-it-yourself control measures. However, the role of spatial factors varied among these relationships. Specifically, urbanisation and geographic region significantly predicted reports of fox bin-raiding, with urban residents - particularly from London - more likely to report such behaviour. Urbanisation predicted reports of wildlife feeding and use of professional pest control of foxes within their area. Geographic region predicted reports of do-it-yourself control measures. Neither urbanisation nor geographic region significantly predicted public attitudes towards foxes. Together, these findings highlight the complex interactions between spatial context and the subjective human dimensions of wildlife interactions, underscoring the importance of nuanced, context-specific strategies to support humanwildlife coexistence and urban rewilding initiatives.

Urbanization is one of the most important forms of human-driven landscape change, altering wildlife populations in unprecedented ways. In terms of behaviour, urbanization is hypothesized to increase the likelihood of observing urban populations touching, exploring and solving novel food-related tasks compared to rural ones. However, little is known about the impact of spatiotemporal patterns of urbanization, particularly historical patterns of change, on these behaviours. We tested this in the world's most urbanized carnivore, the red fox, Vulpes vulpes, by introducing novel food-related tasks (puzzle feeders) to 284 sites throughout Great Britain. We compared tactile and problem-solving behaviours in rural populations, recently colonized urban populations and long-established urban populations (>40 years). Foxes from 27.4% of locations touched the tasks and foxes from 12.4% of locations solved them. Urban foxes were more likely than rural ones to touch tasks. Exploration time, exploratory diversity and latency to touch tasks did not differ significantly across urban and rural locations. Urbanization rate from 1994 to 2020 (26 years) did not significantly predict the likelihood of foxes touching or solving tasks across locations. Older urban populations, particularly from London, spent more time exploring tasks and displayed greater exploratory diversity and higher problem-solving success, despite more recent urban populations being equally likely to touch them. Collectively, our findings suggest that certain population characteristics, such as the likelihood of touching/engaging with novelty, potentially emerge early in urbanization while other characteristics, such as greater exploratory and innovative behaviours, may emerge after long-term urban exposure across many decades.

Rewilding initiatives are increasing in number across Europe and the UK in response to a growing awareness of substantial nature depletion, despite a lack of policy, guidance and legislation. Ongoing transformations of UK environmental policies offer a ‘policy window’ in which rewilding could become established as a key strategy for nature recovery. Here, we present the results of discussion sessions held as part of a British Ecological Society Policy Training workshop. A total of 46 participants, academics, practitioners and young people interested in rewilding attended. Our discussion focused on three pre‐determined thematic discussion sessions: (1) barriers to rewilding and trade‐offs; (2) species reintroductions; (3) facilitating rewilding in policy. Using thematic analysis, four emerging cross‐cutting themes were identified from our workshop discussions: (a) environmental stewardship & public engagement, (b) cross‐policy approaches, (c) incentivising rewilding and (d) an evidence base for rewilding. Policy Implications . Given the UK's considerable biodiversity loss, restoring ecosystem processes and function on a large scale is increasingly urgent, and operationalising rewilding through supportive environmental policy structures should be a key priority for government. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Despite growing recognition that spatial factors such as urbanisation and geographic region shape human-wildlife interactions, few studies have examined – on a large geographic scale – how urbanisation and regional variation in animal ecology together influence public attitudes and behaviours towards wildlife. Understanding spatial factors may have implications for urban rewilding, as its success will depend on local tolerance of wildlife and may potentially increase human-wildlife interactions, such as bin-raiding and public wildlife feeding. We examined how urbanisation, geographic region, and public wildlife feeding influence reported bin-raiding, public attitudes, and the use of control measures towards the world’s most urbanised terrestrial carnivore, the red fox, Vulpes vulpes . Online survey data were obtained from 1,275 participants in the United Kingdom. Fox bin-raiding was associated with increased levels of public wildlife feeding, more negative attitudes towards foxes, and greater use of professional and do-it-yourself pest control measures. However, the role of urbanisation and geographic differences varied among these relationships. Specifically, urbanisation and geographic region significantly predicted reports of fox bin-raiding, with urban residents – particularly those living in London – more likely to report such behaviour. Urbanisation influenced people’s use of professional pest control of foxes within their area, and geographic region influenced the use of do-it-yourself control measures. Neither urbanisation nor geographic region significantly predicted public attitudes towards foxes. Together, these findings highlight the complex interactions between spatial context, human attitudes and behaviour, and animal ecology, underscoring the importance of nuanced, context-specific strategies to support human-wildlife coexistence and urban rewilding initiatives. Highlights ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Natural Environment Research Council, https://ror.org/02b5d8509, NE/X018342/1

Frequent and positive wildlife experiences can strengthen people's physical and mental connection with nature, potentially improving public health and pro-environmental behaviors. Red foxes are the most widespread terrestrial carnivore on the planet and may, therefore, be an important gateway for people to connect with nature. However, it remains unclear how interactions with foxes might influence (positively or negatively) nature connectedness and health in people, such as general anxiety. We surveyed 230 people using an online questionnaire. Frequent, positive experiences were related to better attitudes and tolerance toward foxes, as well as broader nature connectedness. Nature connectedness was negatively related to urbanization but unrelated to age or education. General anxiety was inversely related to age, but unrelated to urbanization, education, frequency and quality of fox experiences, or the interaction between urbanization and fox experiences. These findings suggest a potential role of foxes in shaping people's broader nature connectedness, particularly in cities.

Humans are altering natural environments at unprecedented rates. Ecological generalism is one of the strongest predictors of survival in light of these changes, which in animals, may be shaped by bold and innovative behaviours. Species with greater habitat generalism are proposed to behave more boldly (e.g. touching and ingesting novel food). Species with greater dietary generalism are proposed to behave more innovatively (e.g. novel problem-solving to access food). Support for both hypotheses exists but remains largely restricted to broad comparisons between generalists and specialists. Further comparative data are needed to understand the extent to which these behavioural patterns might shape more nuanced ecological variation between species, such as species with finer-scale niche differences. We compared bold and innovative behaviour in two wild sympatric generalists, the Northern racoon, Procyon lotor, and the Virginia opossum, Didelphis virginiana, using a pull-string task with strings and wires attached to vertical cups containing high-value food. Although both species are broadly classified as generalists, racoons show relatively greater habitat and dietary flexibility than opossums. Because they live sympatrically, it offers a unique opportunity to test, at the same time and locations, whether these finer-scale niche differences are reflective of differences in their bold and innovative behaviour. We predicted that racoons would show bolder behaviour (in terms of touching our novel task) and more innovative behaviour (in terms of solving it). We found that both species were equally likely to acknowledge and touch the task, but racoons were more likely to show innovation to access the food. Racoons' propensity for using innovation to solve novel foraging challenges may contribute to their greater ecological flexibility compared with opossums. More broadly, our findings may help explain differences in how each species adapts to environmental changes. (c) 2025 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/).

Global declines in biodiversity and human health are linked to declining human-nature connectedness, i.e., people’s subjective sense of their relationship with nature. Frequent, positive wildlife experiences can strengthen nature connectedness, improving public health and pro-environmental behaviours to protect biodiversity. Red foxes are the most widespread terrestrial carnivore on the planet. Urbanisation is associated with bolder fox behaviour and reduced public tolerance of foxes due to human-fox conflict. It remains unclear how interactions with foxes might influence (positively or negatively) nature connectedness and health in people, such as general anxiety. We surveyed 230 people using an online questionnaire. Nature connectedness was lower in urban areas and positively related to the perceived frequency and quality of fox encounters. Frequent, positive experiences were related to better attitudes and tolerance towards foxes, but unrelated to general anxiety. Management of human-fox coexistence should consider the potential role of foxes in shaping people’s broader nature connectedness.

Urbanisation is one of the most important forms of human-driven landscape change, creating novel situations in which some species thrive. Animals’ willingness to touch, explore, and solve novel challenges, such as exploiting unfamiliar resources, are thought to be key behavioural characteristics for urban adaptation. Little is known about the impact of spatiotemporal patterns of urbanisation, particularly historical patterns of change, on these behaviours. We tested this in the world’s most urbanised carnivore, the red fox, using novel tasks deployed across 284 sites in the United Kingdom. We compared tactile and problem-solving behaviours in rural populations, recently colonised urban populations, and long-established urban populations (>40 years). Similar to previous work, urban foxes were more likely to touch the tasks compared to rural populations; however, in our new extended dataset, we show for the first time that older urban populations – particularly from London – display greater exploratory diversity and higher problem-solving success, despite more recent urban populations being equally likely to touch them. Our findings suggest that certain population characteristics, such as the likelihood of touching/engaging with novelty, emerge early in urbanisation while other characteristics, such as exploratory diversity and behavioural innovation, may emerge after long-term urban exposure across many decades. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Natural Environment Research Council, https://ror.org/02b5d8509, NE/X018342/1

Studies on wild animal psychology are growing in popularity due to the important role they play in understanding how wildlife is responding to human-driven environmental changes.However, communicating psychological information to the general public could undermine specific conservation objectives by encouraging greater persecution of a species (e.g., "bold" predators).Through a national-level survey (n = 1364 participants), we tested whether communicating information about the boldness and problem-solving abilities of a wild carnivore, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), influences people's tolerance of them.Half of the participants were given information on fox psychology (either a video or a press release about fox boldness and problem-solving), the other half were given content related to basic fox ecology (either a video or a press release about fox habitat use).Afterwards, all participants completed the same 24-item questionnaire evaluating their tolerance of foxes.Although the participants given information about fox psychology were more likely to report a perceived attitude change due to the content they were given, this effect was relatively small and did not impact people's tolerance of foxes more than ecological information.We encourage further research to understand how communicating different types of information might influence, either positively or negatively, people's tolerance of a species as more studies on wild animal psychology are published, and the public's awareness of how animal psychology relates to human-wildlife interactions becomes more widespread.

Urbanisation is the fastest form of landscape transformation on the planet, but researchers’ understanding of the relationships between urbanisation and animal adaptability is still in its infancy. In terms of foraging, bold and innovative behaviours are proposed to help urban animals access, utilise, and exploit novel anthropogenic food sources. Red foxes ( Vulpes vulpes ) are one of the best known and widespread urban-dwelling species. However, despite frequent stories, images, and videos portraying them as “pests” due to their exploitation of food-related objects (e.g., raiding the contents of outdoor bins), it is unknown whether they are bolder and more innovative in terms of their likelihood of exploiting these resources compared to rural populations. In the current study, we gave novel food-related objects to foxes from 104 locations (one object per location) across a large urban-rural gradient. To access the food, foxes had to use behaviours necessary for exploiting many food-related objects in the real world (e.g., biting, pushing, pulling, or lifting human-made materials). Despite all foxes acknowledging the objects, foxes from 31 locations touched them, while foxes from 12 locations gained access to the food inside. A principal component analysis of urban and other landscape variables (e.g., road, greenspace, and human population density) revealed that urbanisation was significantly and positively related to the likelihood of foxes touching, but not exploiting, the objects. Thus, while urban foxes may be bolder than rural populations in terms of their willingness to physically touch novel food-related objects, our findings are inconsistent with the notion that they are more innovative and pose a general nuisance to people by exploiting these anthropogenic resources. Highlights The impact of urbanisation on animal adaptability remains unclear Bold and innovative behaviour may help some urban species thrive We studied wild red foxes’ responses to novel food-related objects Urban foxes were bolder, but not more innovative, than rural foxes Urbanisation may favour bolder, not more innovative, fox behaviour

Studies on wild animal psychology are growing in popularity due to the important role they play in understanding how wildlife is responding to human-driven environmental changes. However, communicating psychological information to the general public could undermine specific conservation objectives by encouraging greater persecution of a species (e.g., "bold" predators). Through a national-level survey (n = 1,364 participants), we tested whether communicating information about the boldness and problem-solving abilities of a wild carnivore, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), influences people's tolerance of them. Half of participants were given information on fox psychology (either a video or a press release about fox boldness and problem-solving), the other half were given content related to animal ecology (either a video or a press release about fox habitat use). Afterwards, all participants completed the same 24-item questionnaire evaluating their tolerance of foxes. Although the participants given information about fox psychology were more likely to report a perceived attitude change due to the content they were given, their attitudes relating to fox tolerance remained unaffected regardless of content or format. We encourage further research to understand how communicating different types of information might influence, either positively or negatively, people's tolerance of a species as more studies on wild animal psychology are published, and the public's awareness of how animal psychology relates to human-wildlife interactions becomes more widespread.

Urbanization is the fastest form of landscape transformation on the planet, but researchers' understanding of the relationships between urbanization and animal behaviour is still in its infancy. In terms of foraging, bold and innovative behaviours are proposed to help urban animals access, utilize and exploit novel anthropogenic food sources. Red foxes, Vulpes vulpes, are one of the most widespread carnivores on the planet. However, despite frequent stories, images and videos portraying them as 'pests' in urban areas due to their exploitation of food-related objects (e.g. raiding the contents of outdoor bins), it is unknown whether they are bolder and more innovative in terms of their likelihood of exploiting these resources compared to rural populations. In the current study, we gave novel food-related objects to foxes from 104 locations (one object per location) across a large urban–rural gradient. To access the food, foxes had to use behaviours necessary for exploiting many food-related objects in the real world (e.g. biting, pushing, pulling or lifting human-made materials). Despite foxes from 96 locations acknowledging the objects, foxes from 31 locations touched them, while foxes from 12 locations gained access to the food inside. A principal component analysis of urban and other landscape variables (e.g. road, greenspace and human population density) revealed that urbanization was significantly and positively related to the likelihood of foxes touching, but not exploiting, the objects. Thus, while urban foxes may be bolder than rural populations in terms of their willingness to physically touch novel food-related objects, our findings are inconsistent with the notion that they are more innovative and pose a general nuisance to people by regularly exploiting these anthropogenic resources on a large geographical scale.

Aim:Comprehensive, global information on species' occurrences is an essential biodiversity variable and central to a range of applications in ecology, evolution, biogeography and conservation. Expert range maps often represent a species' only available distributional information and play an increasing role in conservation assessments and macroecology. We provide global range maps for the native ranges of all extant mammal species harmonised to the taxonomy of the Mammal Diversity Database (MDD) mobilised from two sources, the Handbook of the Mammals of the World (HMW) and the Illustrated Checklist of the Mammals of the World (CMW). Location:Global. Taxon:All extant mammal species. Methods:Range maps were digitally interpreted, georeferenced, error-checked and subsequently taxonomically aligned between the HMW (6253 species), the CMW (6431 species) and the MDD taxonomies (6362 species). Results:Range maps can be evaluated and visualised in an online map browser at Map of Life (mol.org) and accessed for individual or batch download for non-commercial use. Main conclusion:Expert maps of species' global distributions are limited in their spatial detail and temporal specificity, but form a useful basis for broad-scale characterizations and model-based integration with other data. We provide georeferenced range maps for the native ranges of all extant mammal species as shapefiles, with species-level metadata and source information packaged together in geodatabase format. Across the three taxonomic sources our maps entail, there are 1784 taxonomic name differences compared to the maps currently available on the IUCN Red List website. The expert maps provided here are harmonised to the MDD taxonomic authority and linked to a community of online tools that will enable transparent future updates and version control.

Comparative studies can help identify selective pressures that contributed to species differences in the number and composition of personality domains. Despite being adapted to an aquatic lifestyle and last sharing a common ancestor with primates some 95 million years ago, bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) resemble nonhuman primate species in several behavioral and cognitive traits. For example, like chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), dolphins live in fission-fusion societies, use tools, and have relatively large brains. To determine the extent to which these and other factors contribute to the evolution of dolphin personality, we examined personality structure in 134 bottlenose dolphins. Personality was measured in 49 dolphins using a 42-item questionnaire, and in 85 dolphins using a version of the questionnaire that included 7 additional items. We found four domains. Three-Openness, Sociability, and Disagreeableness-resembled personality domains found in nonhuman primates and other species. The fourth, Directedness, was a blend of high Conscientiousness and low Neuroticism and was unique to dolphins. Unlike other species, but like humans, dolphins did not appear to have a strong Dominance domain. The overlap in personality structure between dolphins and other species suggests that selective pressures, such as those related to group structure, terrestrial lifestyles, morphology, and social learning or tool use are not necessary for particular domains to evolve within a species. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Large-scale studies of individual differences in innovative behavior among nonhuman animals are rare because of logistical difficulties associated with obtaining observational data on a large number of innovative individuals across multiple locations. Here, we take a different approach, using observer ratings to study individual differences in innovative behavior in 127 brown capuchin monkeys (Sapajus [Cebus] sp.) from 15 social groups and 7 facilities. Capuchins were reliably rated by 1 to 7 raters (mean 3.2 ± 1.6 raters/monkey) on a 7-point Likert scale for levels of innovative behavior, task motivation, sociality, and dominance. In a subsample, we demonstrate these ratings are valid: Rated innovation predicted performance on a learning task, rated motivation predicted participation in the task, rated dominance predicted social rank based on win/loss aggressive outcomes, and rated sociality predicted the time that monkeys spent in proximity to others. Across all 127 capuchins, individuals that were rated as being more innovative were significantly younger, more social, and more motivated to engage in tasks. Age, sociality, and task motivation all had independent effects on innovativeness, whereas sex, dominance, and group size were nonsignificant. Our findings are consistent with long-term behavioral observations of innovation in wild white-faced capuchins. Observer ratings may, therefore, be a valid tool for studies of animal innovation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Being able to make and use tools was once considered to be an evolutionary hallmark of our species, but has since been documented in other animals. However, for reasons that remain unclear, not all species naturally use tools. Racoons ( Procyon lotor ) are generalist carnivores that possess many of the physical, cognitive, and behavioural characteristics linked to tool use in other species (e.g. manual dexterity, tactile exploration, relatively large brains, extractive foraging, and sociality). Although raccoons have not been observed using tools outside of experimental captive conditions, wild data involving objective psychometric tests are needed. The current study administered a tool-related task to a wild population of raccoons from 20 locations within the Croatan National Forest, USA. The task required participants to use a stick to extract food from a pipe. To facilitate interpretations of their performances on the task, data were obtained on natural tool availability at the field site and participants’ mode of exploring the novel task. None of the participants solved the task despite natural sticks (suitable for solving the task) being widely available across testing locations. Participants were equally likely to smell versus handle novel sticks, which were provided at testing platforms. Limited tactile exploration, but not tool availability, could be at least one factor that reduces these raccoons’ opportunities to interact with and learn about novel tools like sticks.

Data reduction analyses such as principal components and exploratory factor analyses identify relationships within a set of potentially correlated variables, and cluster correlated variables into a smaller overall quantity of groupings. Because of their relative objectivity, these analyses are popular throughout the animal literature to study a wide variety of topics. Numerous authors have highlighted 'best practice' guidelines for component/factor 'extraction', i.e. determining how many components/factors to extract from a data reduction analysis, because this can greatly impact the interpretation, comparability and replicability of one's results. Statisticians agree that Kaiser's criterion, i.e. extracting components/factors with eigenvectors >1.0, should never be used, yet, within the animal literature, a considerable number of authors still use it, even as recently as 2018 and across a wide range of taxa (e.g. insects, birds, fish, mammals) and topics (e.g. personality, cognition, health, morphology, reproduction). It is therefore clear that further awareness is needed to target the animal sciences to ensure that results optimize structural stability and, thus, comparability and reproducibility. In this commentary, we first clarify the distinction between principal components and exploratory factor analyses in terms of analysing simple versus complex structures, and how this relates to component/factor extraction. Second, we highlight empirical evidence from simulation studies to explain why certain extraction methods are more reliable than others, including why automated methods are better, and why Kaiser's criterion is inappropriate and should therefore never be used. Third, we provide recommendations on what to do if multiple automated extraction methods 'disagree' which can arise when dealing with complex structures. Finally, we explain how to perform and interpret more robust and automated extraction tests using R. (C) 2019 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Previous research has shown links between the facial Width-to-Height Ratio (fWHR) and Assertiveness in brown capuchins, Sapajus apella. Similar to research in humans that suggests the male face may be a cue to dominance-related traits such as aggression, in capuchins, wider faces are associated with higher Assertiveness. In the current study we assessed whether capuchins differentiate between wide versus narrow faces. Using facial photographs manipulated for higher or lower fWHR, we examined capuchins' latency to approach a wide or narrow face, and compared this with their latency to approach an alpha versus non-alpha group member. We predicted that if capuchins perceive wider faces of unfamiliar individuals as more assertive than those with narrower faces, then they would exhibit a longer latency to approach the wide over the narrow face condition. Whilst capuchins did exhibit a significantly longer latency to approach alpha versus non-alpha group members, there was no significant difference in their latency to approach either manipulated facial condition. These results suggest that capuchins do not respond to static images in the same way as they respond to real conspecifics, or that they do not use facial width as a cue to Assertiveness in their approach behaviour. We propose alternative methodology to explore whether face width is a cue to social status or assertive traits in nonhuman primates.