Fish of the world, you can now apply for the same rights as terrestrial protein sources like cows and chicken: A recent study finds that even animals as simple as fish have distinct personalities.
Scientists at the University of Guelph observed brook trout in the Credit River west of Toronto to identify potential character traits; they then scooped those fish up and put them through six days of personality tests in the laboratory. They found some to be social, some to be risk-takers, some to be antisocial, and others were 'scaredy-fish.' Presumably all of them were really freaking pissed after undergoing six straight days of Rorschach tests in an aquarium.
This idea supports new ideas that all creatures in the animal kingdom exhibit different personality traits, with different behaviors regulated by personality rather than strictly instinct.
Rob McLaughlin and student Alex Wilson found that the personalities stayed distinct even after the young fish, still just two to four centimetres long, left their natural homes.
For instance, he put the fish in a dark tube in the aquarium. The more active fish were always the ones that emerged into the main body of the tank first. They were more ready to take risks, and less afraid of unfamiliar objects in the water.
"What they do in the field predicts what they do in the lab," he said. "We were getting this sense that they perceive the environment differently, and the kind of things we measured are part of what people are starting to call personality traits in animals."
So think twice before you put that hamachi roll in your mouth, sushi lovers -- you may be eating an animal that has feelings and a personality after all. I'll still be eating all manner of fish, though, because they all share the one personality trait I value most in animals and friends: deliciousness.
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