Personality 101

It is still early spring for us on the marmot crew- the snow has finally melted and we are gearing up our trapping efforts. It is also time to start collecting data for my PhD work. Like I stated in my research interests, I study animal personality. To do this, I have to figure out the personality of individual marmots by putting them in certain situations. One such situation is called an open-field test. An open-field test essentially consists of placing an individual in an arena and recording how they explore the space. I have just finished building my arena, a solid 3’x3’x3’ “box” made from pvc sheeting. I made the arena sturdy. Each of the sides is reinforced by 1” pvc bars. I naively thought it could withstand anything a marmot had to give. Dan, my advisor, and I are ready to begin. The arena is in place; it is time for my first trial. The video-recorder is set and ready to record every behavior. Dan and I take individual “line over circle”, a year-old male, from his trapping bag and place him in the arena. We quickly duck out of the way. We don’t want to affect the marmot’s behavior in any way. The trial has begun. I hear the pitter-patter of its feet as it walks around, exploring each corner. Suddenly a large thump comes from the ‘box’. The marmot jumped and made an unsuccessful attempt at escaping. I think, “my arena is tall enough- it can easily handle this tiny marmot’s leap”. I am still secure in my plan; everything is working perfectly. What a fleeting moment! I see Line Over Circle’s head peak over the siding. It has grabbed onto the top of the arena and lifted itself out.

I can only laugh at my false sense of superiority as the marmot is running towards its burrow. Line Over Circle makes a final blow to my initial experimental design. It trill calls as if to say, “you aren’t going to best me today”. It is time to go back to the drawing board. I have to come up with an answer to the marmot’s incredible jumping ability.

UCLA undergraduates have personality

Hello, my name is Noelle Watanabe (above on the right). I am a 4^th year undergraduate studying biology and Spanish at UCLA. I just started working in the Blumstein lab at the beginning of the Fall 2010 quarter with Matt Petelle as my mentor. I am currently working on a project which involves watching 6 minute videos of marmots and documenting their behaviors to help Matt in his study about marmot personality. Before beginning this project, I knew that marmots existed but I had never seen one and I didn’t know much about them. After just a few weeks of watching the videos that were recorded during the field season, I have seen and observed marmots of all sizes, ages, and personalities.

As I watch each video, I use a program called JWatcher to score actions like sniffing, walking, and rear looking, simply by pressing a key. I enjoy watching the videos because I love looking at the cute marmots and seeing how each individual behaves quite differently in the same situation.

For example, in the open field portion, some marmots are adventurous and actively explore the enclosure, sniffing all over, but others are more timid and sit peacefully in corners, cautiously observing in all directions. Each new marmot video I watch is full of surprises. I remember the first time I heard a marmot alarm call I almost screamed myself because the quick, high pitched cry took me by surprise. My favorite part of each video is the marmot’s reaction to seeing itself in the mirror. It might jump all over, scratch and paw at the mirror, or alarm call thinking it is a strange marmot.

I am excited to be contributing to this study knowing that a mechanism for maintaining personality in marmots could be determined using the data that I have recorded. I am so honored to be helping out in this lab. Working with the Team Marmot members has been amazing and I am having a lot of fun with my project.

--Noelle Watanabe