Animal Welfare

Question 1

What should be the principle method used to assess welfare?

Answer 1

Observation e.g. using animal vocalisations to assess want

Question 2

What is the main way to measure personality of dairy cows?

Answer 2

Using stressful behaviour tests

Question 3

Why is it important to measure fearfulness in cows?

Answer 3

Because cows produce less milk

Question 4

Why is looking at personality in animals important in conservation?

Answer 4

It allows you to determine what personality traits lead to higher matings e.g. in the black rhino dominant females mating with non-dominant males has a higher reproductive success

Question 5

What are the different effects of free farrowing and restrictive farrowing cages?

Answer 5

Free farrowing: mother has room to move about and is able to reject the piglets from suckling

Restrictive farrowing: mothers can not discourage young from suckling so lose weight and have a delayed return to oestrus

Question 6

What are the factors causing behavioural diversity to become degraded in wild populations?

Answer 6

Habitat fragmentation
Pollution
Over-harvesting, e.g. overfishing more bold fish
Human presence: shy individuals will hide

Question 7

What may contribute to the low success of introductions?

Answer 7

Captive bred animals are often behaviourally extinct from wild animals (more aggressive, bolder and more exploratory)