Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris grampia) personality and subjective well-being: Implications for captive management

Research in animal personality has been increasing over the last decade, as scientists realize its importance to health outcomes. In particular, personality has sometimes been used, in conjunction with other tools, for aspects of captive management, including decreasing stress, increasing positive health outcomes, successful breeding, and infant survival. A few such studies have focused on felids, and have shown that there are possible applications for personality in that taxon. This study looked at the Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris grampia), a critically endangered species, with only an estimated 400 left in the wild. Raters assessed 25 Scottish wildcats on 42 traits and on a subjective well-being questionnaire. Mean inter-rater reliability on the personality items was 0.59 and 0.53 on the subjective well-being items. Three personality components were found using principal-components analysis: Dominance, Agreeableness, and Self Control. Higher Self Control was related to higher subjective well-being (r = 0.67, P < 0.01). Implications for the results of this and other similar studies are discussed.