Playful paws: Are there sex differences in playfulness with freshwater otters?

Authors

Julianne Pena, St. Mary's University

Files

Contributor

Heather Hill

Digital Publisher

Digital Commons at St. Mary's University

Publication Date

Spring 2025

Keywords

Otter; biological; gender of Otter

Description

Personality is crucial for understanding the lives of species because it affects how they survive, the way they move, reactions to diseases, and much more (Merrick & Koprowski, 2017; Wolf & Weissing, 2012). The importance of this research is to understand how biological sex may interact with otter personalities through social interactions amongst other otters, the physical world, and humans. Female and male otters vary in the way that they play, with males playing more rough than females (Green, 2000). Play, which is associated with rock juggling, decreases as otters mature (Alliston et al., 2020). Females used object play more than males (Alliston et al., 2020). Social and locomotor play is preferred by otters over object play (Beckel, 1991). Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of sex and age on the personality trait of playfulness within three contexts: with other otters, the physical world, and humans. Hypotheses Sex can have an affect on the enthusiastic playful interactions with other otters, people, and the physical world There will be a difference in playfulness with otters who are older versus those who are younger.

Format

pdf

City

San Antonio, Texas

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.