According to ecologists, having a personality means showing a consistent pattern of
behaviour over time. Researchers from the University of Arizona studied colonies of rock
ants across the western US, both by following them in the wild and by taking whole
colonies back to the lab.
They found that certain risky behaviours, like foraging widely for food and responding
aggressively to a threat, went together and colonies further north tended to take more
of these risks. The study suggests those more adventurous personalities could be an
adaptation to the limited window of activity left by the long, snowy northern winter.