ANIMAL WELFARE (Social Behaviour) Flashcards
Social behaviour:
-interactions occurring between individuals of the same or different species that share some sort of structural relationship
Socialization:
-process of adopting behavioural patterns that leads to a relatively stable social structure
Stages of socialization:
-primary socialization
-secondary socialization
Primary socialization:
-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
Secondary socialization:
-as individuals enter new parts of social life and engages in interactions with peers or other species
Ex. play behaviour
Precocial animals:
-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)
Altricial animals:
-offspring require prolonged and extensive care (rodents, rabbits, babies)
-primary socialization takes a bit longer
*everything shifted a bit to the right
Bonding:
-any social connection prolonged in time between two individuals
-ex. mating, maternal bonding, imprinting
Imprinting:
-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)
Imprinting studies:
-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)
Affiliative behaviours:
-social interactions that function to reinforce social bonds with a group or which are of mutual benefit to all animals involved in the interaction
Examples of affiliative behaviours:
-allogrooming/allopreening
-allofeeding/food sharing
-behavioural synchrony
-spatial proximity
Social structure:
-organization between individuals with long-term consequences for spatial distribution, access to resources, and behavioural interactions
Ex. hierarchy, social roles
Hierarchy:
-an order of individuals or groups of individuals in a social structure, based upon some ability or characteristic
-linear, triangular, despot
Linear hierarchy:
-quite common in small groups
-a>b>c>d>e
Triangular hierarchy:
-horse and cattle
-not clear who is the top dominant
-multiple levels with various animals in each
Ex. 3 cows are the dominant ones
Despot hierarchy:
-rosters
-very clear who is dominant
-A>b=c=d=e
Factors influencing dominance:
-physiological differences
-psychological differences
Physiological differences (hierarchy):
- Age of animal: older>younger
- Size of animal: larger>smaller (except if they are older)
- Presence of size of horns/combs/antlers
- Genes: breed, coat colour
- Gender: males (usually) > females > juveniles (injections of androgens can increase/alter status)
Psychological differences (hierarchy):
-“home court advantage” on familiar territory
-win/loss record
Win/loss record:
-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
Social roles:
-leader
-initiator
-controller
Leader:
-individual that is in front during orderly group progression
-one that is followed by others
Ex. moving into the milking parlour
Initiator:
-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
Controller:
-individual that determines when and where the group movements occur
Advantages of social groups:
-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
Disadvantages of social groups:
-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)
Why live in a group?
-social isolation is a bad alternative
-inability to change or control undesirable social structures
Disadvantages vs. advantages of social groups (simple):
Disadvantages:
-diseases
-competition
Advantages:
-finding resources
-social life
-protection
Cooperative behaviour between species:
-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.
Examples of cooperative behaviour between species:
-pool defensive resources
-multispecies flocking
-cooperative hunting
Pool defensive resources:
-acute sense of one species makes up for deficiencies in another
Multispecies flocking:
-alarm calls
-discovery of food resources
-confusion to predators
Cooperative hunting:
-one species uses another species (or vehicles) to flush prey
Ex. badger and coyote
Interspecific social behaviour:
-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
Information transfer (2 types):
-social transmission
-social learning
Social transmission:
-all processes that involve a simple transfer of information and/or behaviour between individuals of the same or different species
Social learning:
-observational learning of novel behaviours between subjects of the same species requiring more complex cognitive abilities
Examples of social transmission:
-social facilitation
-stimulus enhancement
-local enhancement
Social facilitation:
-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
Social facilitation calf example:
-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
Stimulus enhancement:
-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
Local enhancement:
-behaviour of demonstrator results in an increase in the salience of a particular location
-observer’s motivation to investigate location may be increased
Examples of social learning:
-goal emulation
-action-level imitation
-program-level imitation
Goal emulation:
-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
Goal emulation example (monkeys):
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
Action-level imitation
-observer copies a motor pattern from the demonstrator to achieve a goal
-requires a certain cognitive sophistication
Program-level imitation:
-involves a sequence of copied movements that are observed
Ex. young mountain gorillas learn how to prepare certain noxious plants for consumption
Imitation vs. learning:
-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
