英语听力精选进阶版 14519

（单词翻译）

Environment shapes ants' 'personality'

Summary

22 September 2014

Ant colonies have their own personalities¹, which are shaped by the environment, a US study suggests. Colonies of several hundred ants show differences in the way they behave, just like individual people do. The study is published in the journal 'Proceedings² of the Royal Society B'. 

Reporter:

Jonathan Webb

Report

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 risky³ behaviours, like foraging⁴ 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 adventurous⁵ personalities could be an adaptation to the limited window of activity left by the long, snowy northern winter.