There is increasing evidence that animal personality can affect many aspects of an individual's behaviour, life history and fitness. However, there have been few studies about the link between personality and social organization in the context of wild mammals in their own natural environments. This article reports on ecologically relevant data, linking experimental data from the wild to long-term social association data in a socially and cognitively complex mammal species (bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus). Here, I used behavioural data to describe personality differences between bottlenose dolphins and social network analysis to assess the relationship between personality and social structure. First, I measured the reaction of photo-identified individuals over time and across contexts as a trade-off between a novelty-seeking behaviour (boldness) and a novelty-averse behaviour (shyness). Second, I applied social network analysis to understand the link between the observed shy–bold continuum and social organization, while controlling for other factors that could contribute to affiliation. This study presents for the first time consistent individual differences in behavioural response to novelty, as a proxy for the shy–bold continuum, in wild bottlenose dolphins. Bold individuals had a central role in the social network with stronger associations than shy individuals, suggesting that bold individuals may play an important role in group cohesion, group stability and the spread of information through the network. Together, these findings provide insights into how a social network is structured by personality in wild bottlenose dolphins, with potential fitness consequences. Furthermore, this study provides additional evidence of the existence of social personalities in nonhuman animals and contributes to the understanding of the role of personality in determining the extent to which mammals associate with others.

中文翻译：

---

当个性很重要时：野生宽吻海豚的个性和社会结构，Tursiops truncatus

越来越多的证据表明，动物个性可以影响个体行为、生活史和健康的许多方面。然而，在野生哺乳动物在其自然环境中的背景下，关于个性与社会组织之间的联系的研究很少。本文报告了生态相关数据，将野生实验数据与社会和认知复杂的哺乳动物物种（宽吻海豚、Tursiops truncatus）的长期社会关联数据联系起来。在这里，我用行为数据来描述宽吻海豚之间的个性差异，并通过社交网络分析来评估个性与社会结构之间的关系。第一的，我测量了经过照片识别的个人随时间和跨环境的反应，作为寻求新奇行为（大胆）和厌恶新奇行为（害羞）之间的权衡。其次，我应用社交网络分析来理解观察到的害羞-大胆连续体与社会组织之间的联系，同时控制可能有助于从属关系的其他因素。这项研究首次展示了野生宽吻海豚对新鲜事物的行为反应的一致个体差异，作为害羞-大胆连续体的代表。与害羞的个体相比，大胆的个体在社交网络中发挥着核心作用，其关联性更强，这表明大胆的个体可能在群体凝聚力、群体稳定性和信息通过网络传播方面发挥重要作用。一起，这些发现为野生宽吻海豚的个性如何构建社交网络提供了见解，并具有潜在的健康后果。此外，这项研究为非人类动物中存在社会人格提供了额外的证据，并有助于理解人格在决定哺乳动物与他人交往程度方面的作用。