Unexpected personalities
Probably any pet owner would be able to describe not only their pet’s exact appearance, but also its unique personality. Some animals are joyful, some are grumpy. Some are curious, some are skittish. Friendly, cautious, playful, sleepy… They come in all varieties, which is part of the reason why we tend to attribute them with human-like qualities. However, this does not apply only to pets but the wildlife as well. It is just way harder to observe, since we can't spend the same amount of time with animal in the wild as we can with our own dog, cat, rat or parrot at home. It has been several years, since I started with wildlife photography and until recently I usually failed to properly notice, that even animals of the same species are not the same personalities.
Take these two grass snakes below for an example. I met both of them on the shore of a pond in the late afternoon - just not the same day. Both of them were about 60-70 cm long. Both of them lay still until I approached them without knowing they are there (well, it is fair to say, that I almost stepped on them unintentionally). In both instances, it was relatively warm day with enough of sunlight for them to warm up. I can’t think of any objective reason, why they should behave in a different manner. Yet they did.
The snake on the first picture did everything in its power to disappear as fast as it could. It did not really look scared, just annoyed. I tried to follow it for a moment, which was not very easy on the shoreline made of wobbly pebbles. These snakes can move surprisingly fast, the space on the shore was limited and since my telephoto lens has minimum focusing distance about 3 metres, it surely didn’t make my job any easier. The pond bank was covered in tall grass and dead leaves from previous autumn, so the snake used them to hide. After about one minute it slithered under the little pile of leaves. I expected it to come out on the other side, but that didn’t happen. It just disappeared like it belonged to David Copperfield. Well, it probably just found some hole to sneak into, but to me it just seemed like a successful magic trick.
Grass snake
The snake on the second picture, however, was a total badass. Audacious, self-confident, not bothered by my presence at all (even though it lived on a place with almost no human traffic whatsoever, so it should not be used to humans at all). It really was a totally different experience! The snake not just watched me, but even started getting closer to me after a while. It clearly wanted to explore. That gave me a great opportunity to capture the perfect moment, while he was probing its environment with its split tongue.
Grass snake
I had a quite similar experience with these two lizards below. On one hand, there was this little lady sand lizard, which fled right away never to be seen again…
Sand lizard ♀
On the other hand, there was this green little fellow proudly showing his healing stump he was left with after previous successful autotomy. After some time he disappeared in a grass…
Sand lizard ♂
…only to come back again a moment later to watch me curiously.
Sand lizard ♂
Of course my limited experience can hardly be of any scientific value. My point is, that even wild animals are surely individual personalities, even though it is hard for us to really get to know them. Most of the time we can only observe their level of curiosity or skittishness. I can only wonder what is going on in their heads, when I meet them. They must experience and feel something, and who knows, maybe there is enough material for proper Freudian analysis.
For instance, this frog is clearly depressed! Maybe it is trying to reconcile its relationship with its absent mother. Maybe those days as tadpole left some serious scars on its psyche. Or it is just chilling in a puddle. What do I know, I am no animal psychologist.
