Data for birth weight (BW), lamb survival (LS) and neonatal behaviour, including records of between 1494 (latency of birth to first suckling or LBS) and 2705 (BW and LS) lambs were used. Additionally to the lamb data, ewe data comprising of between 1003 ewe-year records for the latency of stay on the birth site (SBS) and 2024 ewe-year records for number of lambs weaned per ewe mated (NLW) were analysed

The importance of social stability and its influence on the expression of the social behaviour repertoire in domestic animals remains poorly understood, especially for affiliative behaviours and other putative socio-positive behaviours such as social play. This study investigated the occurrence and type of social behaviours, with a focus on socio-positive behaviours, and their relation to growth and

The Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ©) (http://www.cbarq.org) has been used to measure behaviors associated with release or graduation from several assistance dog programs, however it has never been evaluated within a prison environment. This study investigated whether a modified version of the C-BARQ© can be utilized in a prison puppy-raising program (Puppies Behind

The endangered Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica) is currently distributed as a single wild population of 670 individuals and ∼400 captive animals globally. Although the captive lions are major hope for the species’ long-term conservation through repatriation, their welfare status and management practises need research attention. To this end, we tested the efficacy of feeding, sensory and manipulable

Most people living or working in close association with animals are familiar with individual differences in their behaviour, and awareness is growing that understanding such differences can contribute to improved management, production and welfare. Nevertheless, due to the considerable logistic and financial difficulties of conducting longitudinal studies, particularly in the large, slow-growing mammalian

Adult dogs show similar behaviour pattern towards their owners as human infants towards their caregivers among experimental conditions, where the attachment behaviour is activated because of the moderately stressful situation. Meanwhile the capacity to form attachment towards the owner is considered as part of the domestication history of dogs, in more recent times dogs were selected for often very

Although alpacas are becoming increasingly popular animals, their behaviour towards humans has received little research interest until now. The purpose of our study was to investigate, for the first time, associations between caretaker attitudes and handling practices (i.e., frequency of different types of contact, and the use of training) and alpaca behaviour in the presence of humans in a large sample

It is often stressful for cats to be placed in cages in a shelter and environmental enrichment (EE) of the caging is one mechanism for mitigating this stress. The behavioural style of 72 cats was assessed as bold or shy. They were then randomly allocated (approximately balanced by behavioural style) to one of the following EE treatments in single standard cages: a hiding box (BOX), a perching shelf

The experiment used tri-axial accelerometers to record changes in suckling behaviour in beef calves with advancing age and also investigated the correlations between suckling behaviour, production variables and postpartum anestrous period (PPAP) of cows. Data were collected from 20 Bos taurus calves reared under pastoral conditions of northern Australia over two periods: when calves were on average1

Efficient and sensitive animal pain detection approaches are increasingly studied with the goal of improving animal welfare and monitoring the efficacy of treatment and rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to determine the potential of various behaviours as sensitive indicators of subtle inflammation states in the equine animal. The long-term goal of this research is to understand how to objectively

Injurious pecking behavior affects commercial Pekin duck welfare, but little information is available regarding the characteristics thereof. This study investigated self- and conspecific-directed pecking behavior of ducks, including 1) the prevalence, frequency and duration, 2) age-related changes in pecking and preening behavior, and body locations affected; 3) influence of time of day and location

Long-term, multi-institution evaluations have become a reliable assessment tool for evaluating patterns of wounding in zoo-living primates, informing on each species’ respective care and population management. For western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) there has been no detailed reports focused on mixed-sex groups, the most common social group type for this species in zoos. In this study

The use of odors is a popular form of sensory enrichment, yet few studies have investigated the longer lasting effects of biologically relevant chemical signals like pheromones. Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are unique because they are commonly held in zoos and utilize two single-compounds to synchronize reproduction: frontalin (a pheromone produced by male elephants in musth) and (Z)-7-dodecenyl

Evaluation of animal behavior provides information on health and well-being in animals. In this preliminary study, we investigated the effectiveness of an accelerometry approach to evaluate changes in health status of cattle by combining physical activity quantified by dynamic body acceleration (DBA) and qualitative behavioral classification data. Although feeding low vitamin A (VA) diets to fattening

Conventional broiler breeders are severely feed restricted during the rearing period, resulting in an unfulfilled behavioural need for performing feeding behaviour and likely in a sensation of hunger. As a response to the feed restriction, behavioural changes have been observed, including increased foraging and drinking and reduced resting behaviour. This study aimed to investigate effects of four

Boldness and exploration behaviors form a behavioral syndrome in dispersive species. Although green sea turtles are highly migratory and are often captured in coastal set nets of commercial fisheries in Japan, their personality and behavioral syndromes are not well understood. In this study of wild sub-adult green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), we first confirmed personality consistency over time using

Dogs experience both acute and chronic stress when living in animal shelters. Current best practices recommend a variety of techniques for reducing stress such as enhanced human interactions including play or training, novel feeding strategies, increased exercise/group play, and, when possible, group housing. Auditory stimulation in the form of bio-acoustically designed music has shown a stress-relieving

Sleep is a critically important behaviour for all mammals due to its fundamental role within homeostatic/circadian systems and memory consolidation. As a large and vigilant prey species that is highly sensitive to stimuli at night, the horse sleeps less than other mammalian species. For this reason, the domestic environment has the potential to greatly affect the duration and quality of equine sleep

This study determined to what extent the duration of labour phase II under extensive rearing would affect lamb viability and maternal behaviour in primiparous (P) single-bearing Corriedale ewes (n = 63). Multiparous (M) ewes (n = 116) were used as control category, reared under the same conditions. Duration of labour was divided in 4 time-groups, G1: ≤ 30 min; G2: 31 –60 min; G3: 61–90 min and G4:

We investigated the response of Beetal goats (does and bucks separately) at two different feeder types i.e. linear and hexagonal with special reference to homologous regrouping. Twenty eight does and twelve bucks were uniformly distributed at linear or hexagonal feeder (14 does and 6 bucks per pen). All the goats had prior experience of group feeding at hexagonal feeder during early growing stage and

There is a consensus that humans, rodents, and primates process odor mixtures configurally: that is, the mixture is perceived as a unique whole and not as a collection of its different components. However, it is commonly believed by dog trainers that dogs can analyze mixtures and break them down into their individual components: that is, that they process odor mixtures analytically. There is, however

This study investigated the effect of milk allowance on the suitability of behavioural and physiological responses, individually and in combination, as early disease indicators. A total of 120 heifer calves were assigned into a 5 L/d or 10 L/d milk allowance treatment group. Daily health checks were conducted to determine when calves presented clinical signs of neonatal calf diarrhoea (NCD). Automated

This study aimed to identify the risk factors for aggressive behaviour in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) in Mainland China. This information has never been estimated before for owned dogs in China, therefore, there has been a lack of information to help guide veterinarians and dog behaviourists when giving advice to owners of dogs considered to have such behaviour problems. In order to establish

Piglets weaned under commercial systems are greatly stressed by maternal separation, abrupt changes in the diet and mixing of litters. Intensive agonistic interactions exacerbate this challenge for piglets. We investigated effects of older conspecific presence in the nursery pen after weaning. Ninety-six 21 days old piglets were weaned and housed in eight pens, distributed equally by gender and by

Although triplet litters are increasing in captive colonies of common marmosets, parents can rarely rear more than two infants without human intervention. There is however much evidence that early life experience, including separation from the family, can influence both vulnerability and resilience to stress. The current study investigated the behavioural and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis

Assessing how cats cope with the housing and husbandry at shelters is an important part of maintaining good animal welfare. There are non-invasive methods to assess how cats cope with their environment. The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability of the behaviours used in an extended Stress Assessment protocol for cats to detect stress. Looking at which behaviours are salient and possible

Attention bias is a new approach to assessing animal affect that has shown promising results in several animal species. It describes a tendency to preferentially attend to emotional compared to neutral cues and is influenced by underlying affect. It is important in the early days of this new field that we develop widely utilisable methods and incorporate lessons from the human literature from which

After their birth, foals are usually housed with and nursed by their mares. Because a foal’s growth and survival depend greatly on the mare’s milk for a certain time after birth, it is said that observations of suckling behaviour can indicate a foal’s growth. Nevertheless, the results of earlier studies suggest that foal suckling behaviour is not a useful predictor of milk intake. This study investigated

Species are increasingly confronted with extreme climatic conditions such as heatwaves. Behavioural changes are an important response to changed environmental conditions. We investigated how free-ranging sheep (Ovis aries) in large rangeland paddocks respond to heatwave conditions in the arid zone of Australia. We defined heatwaves as a three-day period with each day’s maximum temperature exceeding

To date, Qualitative Behavior Assessment (QBA) has not been used to measure the welfare of pre-partum Zebu heifers treated with practices of positive handling. The study objective was to investigate the effect of brushing as positive handling on animal behavior in the prepartum period, aside from establishing a qualitative behavior index to assess the animals’ well-being pre- and postpartum periods

The behavioural reactivity of two divergently selected lines of South African Merino sheep for an increased (HL: N = 1187) and reduced (LL: N = 285) number of lambs weaned per ewe mated was investigated using a docility test and a ‘scale’ test. The objective of this study was to determine whether these two lines, which differed significantly in terms of reproduction performance, would also react differently

We investigated how providing chewable materials to piglets during the early weeks of life affect sow behaviour, sow and piglet interaction and sow health in pens with farrowing crates. We divided 59 pregnant sows into two treatment groups: the Control group (C, n = 29) and the Rope-Paper group (RP, n = 30). Piglets in the C group had the minimum enrichment required by Finnish legislation. For the

Legislative and market initiatives are requiring that gestating sows move from individual housing to group settings. Little information is known about coping of individual sows in these more socially complex environments and thus the impact of different behaviors on sow reproductive success was investigated. The movements of 70 sows during periods of reintroduction into large pen gestational housing

The current study investigated associations between behavioral problems in Brazilian dogs and the demographic characteristics of both the dogs and their owners, as well as the quality of owner-dog relationship. Although Brazil has a large population of dogs, little is known about their behavioral profiles and to what extent they are comparable to those of other cultures. For this investigation, we

To effectively select for temperament, selection criteria must reflect an animal's response to stress. Subjective measures such as chute (CS) and exit (ES) score provide fast and easy assessments of temperament but may be subject to observer bias and inconsistency. Objective measures such as cortisol and other metabolites have been associated with increased stress in cattle, especially regarding transportation

Positive interactions with humans can improve cow behavior and facilitate farm management, especially in dairy production systems in which milking occurs daily. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of positive tactile stimulation on behavior, and its effect on the milking routine, milk ejection, and milk yield of Gyr cows. Experiment 1 was performed with 40 cows: 20 cows (5 primiparous

Sows are highly motivated to build a nest prior to farrowing, but, given the barren environment of farrowing crates, this behaviour is limited and improperly expressed. We aimed to assess the effects of a straw provision in the farrowing crate as environmental enrichment in the prepartum period on: 1) sows' reproductive and behavioural responses before, during and after farrowing, and 2) piglets' performance

The use of animals in rodeo performances exemplifies the debate of trained performance vs. coerced abuse in human-animal interactions, particularly for roughstock or bucking events. The debate suffers from a lack of scientific evaluation to represent the animals’ experience and to inform discourse. The current study evaluated 116 horses over 3 yrs at the same rodeo in the Bareback, Novice Bareback

Serotonin (5-HT) is essential for neuronal development and behavioral regulation. Serotonin, upon in ovo administration, has been previously reported to modulate aggressive behavior in avian species, however it still remains unknown if maternal serotonin affects chick behavior through hypothalamic gene expression. We injected an equal volume of saline (control) and either a 5 μg (low) or a 15 μg (high)

Monitoring the vocalizations produced by livestock in commercial facilities can be used to remotely assess the arousal, and perhaps welfare, of the animals. Domestic swine is an ideal candidate for this type of assessment as it is a highly social and vocal mammal, however, a standardized description of the vocal repertoire of domestic swine has yet to be established. The objectives of this study were

Many breeding organisations include a subjective scoring of rideability by a professional rider into their evaluation of sports horses, but the consistency and reliability of the scoring system is debateable. The aim of this study was to investigate (i) whether professional riders agree in their scoring of rideability, and (ii) whether rideability scores are affected by rein tension, horse conflict

Working dogs are valued for their olfactory abilities, trainability, and teamwork with their handlers. They often work in environments that could be associated with stress, and it is critical to understand the impact these experiences have on behavioral and medical welfare. A cohort of search-and-rescue (SAR) dogs that responded to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and a cohort of SAR dogs

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of social position and degree of affinity among heifers attempting to access limited feed supplement. This study was divided into two stages: (1) observation of behaviour at the paddock and (2) arena tests. In stage 1, we measured socio-positive interactions (licking and frequency of proximity among animals) and agonistic interactions in a herd of

Allomaternal care (AMC) is provided to the offspring by individuals other than the genetic mother, including several seemingly altruistic behaviors such as babysitting, carrying, nursing, crèching, or huddling for thermoregulation. To determine whether there is any allomaternal care among free-ranging domestic dogs, from March 2015 to May 2019 a total of eight dog groups consisting of 19 adult females

Recording grazing time is important because the time allocated for each grazing event is one of the limitations to achieving high intake levels. Grazing time can be measured via visual observation or, more recently, by devices calibrated for this purpose. The Kenz Lifecorder Plus (Suzuken Co. Ltda., Nagoya, Japan) has been used to record daily grazing time with high accuracy, but none of the previous

In poultry, aggressive pecking and threatening are normal agonistic behavior patterns which serve to establish a social hierarchy. As agonistic behavior is a stressor for animals, its excessive occurrence is undesired in layer flocks. Feather pecking is a longstanding serious problem in layer flocks and its relationship to agonistic behavior is still not clear. Therefore, phenotypic and genomic analyses

In the European captive population of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), the harem social structure and an even sex ratio at birth result in a surplus of males and consequent management difficulties. This study seeks to assess the socialization differences between captive juvenile and adolescent male gorillas according to their fertility status (intact vs castrated) in different social

Many studies report that translocation projects using captive or captive-bred animals have low success rates. Captive animals can quickly lose natural behaviours, including recognition of predators, when isolated from natural pressures. To combat this, pre-release behavioural conditioning is often used in conservation translocations to encourage natural behaviours and promote survival after release

Although systems for automated assessment of broiler chicken welfare have now been developed on a small scale, none are currently in widespread commercial use. We addressed this gap between research and uptake by field testing a camera system that uses the optical flow patterns made by the movements of flocks to monitor bird welfare. We tested the hypothesis that the movement patterns made by flocks

Gait defects, assessed as gait score (GS), is a common welfare problem in broiler chicken production. The aim of this study was to examine whether birds with GS2 experience pain and poor locomotor ability compared to birds of lower GS. From day 0-27 of age, 600 Ross 308 birds were housed in simulated commercial conditions (stocking density 40 kg/m2). On day 27, all birds were gait scored and 192 birds

Proliferation of shrubs at the expense of native forage in pastures has been associated with large changes in biomass and spatial distribution of forage for grazing livestock, and such changes influence the grazing behavior of ruminants. However, little information is available concerning the effect of pastoral shrub coverage on grazing pattern. To better understand the grazing behavior of yaks and

Variation in executive function and age-related cognitive decline may underlie the emergence of behaviour and welfare problems in dogs. A better understanding of such links, and of dog cognition in general, will be facilitated by the development of cognitive tasks that can be readily implemented, including with publicly-owned dogs that are available for relatively short testing periods. Working memory

Abnormal behaviours are often used as a welfare indicator in zoo-housed great apes. While previous studies report on the occurrence of abnormal behaviours in zoo-housed chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), there is currently a lack of knowledge about such behaviours in the closely related bonobo (Pan paniscus). Here we report on the prevalence, diversity and frequency of abnormal behaviours, based on 1531 hours

The objectives of this study were to investigate the behaviour of hutch-housed dairy calves, develop an ethogram of general behaviour, and determine whether housing calves in different hutches, day, gender and time of day influenced the behaviour of dairy calves using the developed ethogram. Thirty-one apparently healthy Holstein Friesian calves (6 ± 1 week old) were recruited for this study. The ethogram

Most research to enrich the environment of psittacines in captivity has focused on foraging. Little is known about the importance of bathing substrates for enrichment of their environment, despite this being a natural behaviour that is rarely possible in captivity. Twelve captive-bred, adult cockatiels (Nymphicus hollandicus) were housed in groups of four in three aviary replicates. An initial choice

In the literature on companion animal behaviour, a diverse range of repetitive behaviours in dogs have been referred to as symptoms of an underlying canine compulsive disorder analogous to obsessive-compulsive disorder in humans. It is claimed that the two disorders are behaviourally equivalent and have the same neurophysiology and response to pharmacological treatment. These claims are largely derived

Tail-biting in pigs affects the health and welfare of the animals. Different indicators, such as the tail posture, can be used to detect tail-biting at an early stage. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of tail-directed behaviour, differentiating between tail-biting and tail-in-mouth behaviour, on tail lesions and tail posture of 6 groups of 24 undocked piglets in identical pens using

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is an indoor positioning technology that has several advantages over current methods of tracking indoor reared broiler chickens, including providing long-term data on movement patterns without the effect of observer presence. More information is needed on the accuracy of this technology under commercial conditions and the effects of wearing an UWB transmitter tag on normal broiler

Since the 1950s musk deer (Moschidae) are kept in captivity for the production of musk, a glandular secretion used in Chinese traditional medicine and as an ingredient in cosmetics. Most recently, forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii) raised in captivity were reintroduced into the wild to augment depleted wild populations. The most prominent behavioral and social characteristics of musk deer are anxiety