Research overview: individual boldness and personality in urban felid colonisation

Consistent individual differences in boldness, exploration and risk tolerance, often termed animal personality, may determine which individuals successfully colonise and persist in urban environments. This overview synthesises research on how bolder felids exploit human-associated resources and tolerate disturbance while shy individuals avoid developed areas, and how such variation could fuel behavioural and eventually evolutionary change in urban populations. It examines methods for measuring personality in wild cats and the implications for conflict, since bold animals may be more prone to human encounters. The synthesis frames individual behavioural variation as an underappreciated driver of felid responses to urbanisation.