ANIMAL WELFARE (Social Behaviour) Flashcards

1
Q

Social behaviour:

A

-interactions occurring between individuals of the same or different species that share some sort of structural relationship

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2
Q

Socialization:

A

-process of adopting behavioural patterns that leads to a relatively stable social structure

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3
Q

Stages of socialization:

A

-primary socialization
-secondary socialization

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4
Q

Primary socialization:

A

-initial emotional attachment formed with their own or other species
-no matter if the animal is rewarded, punished, or treated indifferently by the individual or object of socialization
-kittens: 3-9 weeks
-puppies: 19d-12 weeks

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5
Q

Secondary socialization:

A

-as individuals enter new parts of social life and engages in interactions with peers or other species
Ex. play behaviour

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6
Q

Precocial animals:

A

-offspring require little parental care (cattle, piglets, foal)
-primary socialization happens early
*period of extreme fearful response to strange things (between primary and secondary socialization)

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7
Q

Altricial animals:

A

-offspring require prolonged and extensive care (rodents, rabbits, babies)
-primary socialization takes a bit longer
*everything shifted a bit to the right

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8
Q

Bonding:

A

-any social connection prolonged in time between two individuals
-ex. mating, maternal bonding, imprinting

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9
Q

Imprinting:

A

-phase-sensitive learning process that occurs at birth (6-18 hours)
-rapid and irreversible
-animals will attached to first object with which they have visual, auditory or tactile experience
Ex. their parents, rubber boots, a box on a toy train
-Konrad Lorenz (worked with birds)

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10
Q

Imprinting studies:

A

-intensively studied only in birds (chickens, ducks, geese)
-comparable form of bonding apparently occurs in young of many mammals and some fish and insects (not necessarily imprinting)

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11
Q

Affiliative behaviours:

A

-social interactions that function to reinforce social bonds with a group or which are of mutual benefit to all animals involved in the interaction

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12
Q

Examples of affiliative behaviours:

A

-allogrooming/allopreening
-allofeeding/food sharing
-behavioural synchrony
-spatial proximity

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13
Q

Social structure:

A

-organization between individuals with long-term consequences for spatial distribution, access to resources, and behavioural interactions
Ex. hierarchy, social roles

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14
Q

Hierarchy:

A

-an order of individuals or groups of individuals in a social structure, based upon some ability or characteristic
-linear, triangular, despot

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15
Q

Linear hierarchy:

A

-quite common in small groups
-a>b>c>d>e

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16
Q

Triangular hierarchy:

A

-horse and cattle
-not clear who is the top dominant
-multiple levels with various animals in each
Ex. 3 cows are the dominant ones

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17
Q

Despot hierarchy:

A

-rosters
-very clear who is dominant
-A>b=c=d=e

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18
Q

Factors influencing dominance:

A

-physiological differences
-psychological differences

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19
Q

Physiological differences (hierarchy):

A
  1. Age of animal: older>younger
  2. Size of animal: larger>smaller (except if they are older)
  3. Presence of size of horns/combs/antlers
  4. Genes: breed, coat colour
  5. Gender: males (usually) > females > juveniles (injections of androgens can increase/alter status)
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20
Q

Psychological differences (hierarchy):

A

-“home court advantage” on familiar territory
-win/loss record

21
Q

Win/loss record:

A

-related to previous experience
-individuals showing to be dominant in other groups are more likely to win dominance in a new group irrespective of their size or age

22
Q

Social roles:

A

-leader
-initiator
-controller

23
Q

Leader:

A

-individual that is in front during orderly group progression
-one that is followed by others
Ex. moving into the milking parlour

24
Q

Initiator:

A

-individual that is first to react to stimuli
-one that moves first
-could be the leader as well, but not necessarily
Ex. an alarm call would elicit freezing behaviour

25
Q

Controller:

A

-individual that determines when and where the group movements occur

26
Q

Advantages of social groups:

A

-protection from environment (huddle for warmth)
-protection against predators
-enhanced ability to find mates
-increased ability to find and protect resources
-division of labour
-richer learning environment for young

27
Q

Disadvantages of social groups:

A

-increased competition (feeding, breeding)
-increased spread of disease and parasites
-group may be more conspicuous to predators
-reduced fitness due to inbreeding
-risk of exploitation by group members (Ex. you may always be the last one to feed, or stuck on outside of ‘warmth’ circle)

28
Q

Why live in a group?

A

-social isolation is a bad alternative
-inability to change or control undesirable social structures

29
Q

Disadvantages vs. advantages of social groups (simple):

A

Disadvantages:
-diseases
-competition
Advantages:
-finding resources
-social life
-protection

30
Q

Cooperative behaviour between species:

A

-ducks, pigeons, squirrels, crows, seagulls have all learned to live close to humans for their benefit (Ex. we feed them)
*probably first step for domestication of dogs, cats, cattle, etc.

31
Q

Examples of cooperative behaviour between species:

A

-pool defensive resources
-multispecies flocking
-cooperative hunting

32
Q

Pool defensive resources:

A

-acute sense of one species makes up for deficiencies in another

33
Q

Multispecies flocking:

A

-alarm calls
-discovery of food resources
-confusion to predators

34
Q

Cooperative hunting:

A

-one species uses another species (or vehicles) to flush prey
Ex. badger and coyote

35
Q

Interspecific social behaviour:

A

-some species that are capable of forming social groups with other species (ex. cats and dogs with people) may adapt their intraspecific behavioural repertoire in order to improve communication
Ex. cats are be more vocal towards humans than other cats

36
Q

Information transfer (2 types):

A

-social transmission
-social learning

37
Q

Social transmission:

A

-all processes that involve a simple transfer of information and/or behaviour between individuals of the same or different species

38
Q

Social learning:

A

-observational learning of novel behaviours between subjects of the same species requiring more complex cognitive abilities

39
Q

Examples of social transmission:

A

-social facilitation
-stimulus enhancement
-local enhancement

40
Q

Social facilitation:

A

-when the behaviour by an individual is triggered or increased in rate or frequency by the presence of another individual carrying out the behaviour
-increases motivation without learning involved

41
Q

Social facilitation calf example:

A

-less suckling when alone
-a bit more suckling when with a hungry calf in next pen
-the most suckling when with another calf muzzled in the same pen

42
Q

Stimulus enhancement:

A

-the observer is more likely to interact with the object with which the demonstrator interacts
-observer is more likely to learn about consequences of interacting with these types of stimuli through individual associative learning

43
Q

Local enhancement:

A

-behaviour of demonstrator results in an increase in the salience of a particular location
-observer’s motivation to investigate location may be increased

44
Q

Examples of social learning:

A

-goal emulation
-action-level imitation
-program-level imitation

45
Q

Goal emulation:

A

-reproduction of the results of a model’s behaviour, rather than the reproduction of the precise behaviour that produced those results
-observer engages in similar behaviours to achieve that goal, without necessarily replicating the specific actions of the model

46
Q

Goal emulation example (monkeys):

A

Goal: fill the cup to get a treat
-monkey 1: held water in mouth and used it to transport to the cup
-monkey 2: peed in the cup

47
Q

Action-level imitation

A

-observer copies a motor pattern from the demonstrator to achieve a goal
-requires a certain cognitive sophistication

48
Q

Program-level imitation:

A

-involves a sequence of copied movements that are observed
Ex. young mountain gorillas learn how to prepare certain noxious plants for consumption

49
Q

Imitation vs. learning:

A

-in many cases, imitations occurred as a form of associative learning, mediated by human reinforcement
>learning involves intention and purpose
>learning requires cognitive skills and brain structures not found in other species
>evolutionary speaking, the cost/benefit of having those structures may be low