Animals = personality?

Following up on my entry the other day of the complexity of animals (read it here), a friend sent me a link to a New York Times article that poses the question, Do animals have personality?

Duh. Just look at Kate.

The piece, written by Natalie Angier, talks about "the burgeoning field of animal personality research.

Scientists studying animals from virtually every niche of the bestial kingdom have found evidence of distinctive personalities — bundled sets of behaviors, quirks, preferences and pet peeves that remain stable over time and across settings. They have found stylistic diversity in chimpanzees, monkeys, barnacle geese, farm minks, blue tits and great tits, bighorn sheep, dumpling squid, pumpkinseed sunfish, zebra finches, spotted hyenas, even spiders and water striders, to name but a few.

Researchers ask which geese are leaders and whether sensitive people have anything in common with squealing pigs.

Some critics complain that the term “animal personality” is a bit too slick, while others worry that the entire enterprise smacks of that dread golem of biology, anthropomorphism — assigning human traits to nonhuman beings. Researchers in the field, however, defend their lingo and tactics. “Some of the behavior patterns we’re talking about are similar to what we call personality in human psychology literature,” said Max Wolf of the Max Planck Institute in Germany. “So why not call it personality in other animals?”

So what do you think? Does your dog or cat have a personality?