Animal observation Flashcards
What is selective attention?
The capacity for or process of reacting to certain stimuli selectively when several occur simultaneously.
What is animal observation?
Observing an animal or a group of animals for a certain period of time to assess X.
What does animal observation say about one animal?
Says something about that animal
What does animal observation say about multiple animal?
Says something about the herd
An provide information on management, and (possibly) where to act
*Needs to be combined with other information like age, lactation stage, date of trimming, etc. -> Important in order to draw conclusions or give accurate recommendations to the owner/farmer
What to pay attention to when observing an animal?
Health
Management
Nutrition
Environment
Performance
What is important for an assessment method/tool?
Measurable → to score variable (e.g. come to a (total) score).
Comparable → between individuals of the same species.
Repeatable → not dependent on the observer.
What tools are there for animal observing?
Ethograms -> Tables that say something about the status of an animal
*Differences between species and animal type
*Differences made between facial and bodily expressions
Alwin protocol and Welfare monitoring systems (differences between species and type of animal)
*Good housing
*Good feeding
*Good health
*Appropriate behaviour
Weighing scale
Measuring tapes
What biases are there?
The observer effect:
Occur when the behaviour of studied animals changes in response to the researcher’s presence.
Belief perseverance:
Refers to the tendency to hold onto a belief or interpretation even when the presented evidence contradicts it.
The observer expectant:
Observers may see what they expect or want to see, influencing their interpretation of animal behaviour
Someone expects a certain animal to be aggressive → interpret any action as confirmation of that expectation.
How to overcome a bias?
Interobserver reliability is a measure used to assess the consistency or agreement between different observers when they independently assess or observe the same phenomenon.
High interobserver reliability indicates that different observers are consistently and reliably interpreting and recording the same behaviours or events when observing animals.
Researchers often use various methods to establish interobserver reliability: *Training
*Observation protocols *Scoring systems
