Author/biologist John Shivik writes animatedly (pun intended), beginning with animals he has known and characteristics that made them special to him. He also informs us that animal research was set back 100 years because of a biologist who decreed in 1896 that studying animal personalities was plain wrong. Until recently, researchers who indicated that animals had personalities would be considered to be "unscientific, wishy-washy, and subjective sentimentalists." That attitude has now shifted. Shivik's book compiles recent studies, some quite impressive, based on their length of time and the number of animals studied, about how animals can be categorized into Myers-Briggs personality groups and then followed to learn more about them. Just a small sampling of animals studied this way: spiders, bees, fish, bats, dolphins, cougars, elephants, monkeys.Not only do animals have varying characteristics that comprise personality, but different personality traits provide diversity to their populations, which in turn helps species survive.
This very readable book has a useful index and is extensively foot-noted in case one wants to know more about the studies Shivik describes.
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