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Behaviour and Welfare of Domesticated Animals > Cause, Function, Evolution and Development of Normal Behaviour > Flashcards

Cause, Function, Evolution and Development of Normal Behaviour Flashcards

1
Q

Describe domesticated animal behaviour

A

highly variable amongst orders within classes which reflects differences in ecological niche & domestic selection
all have same functional attributes
mix of single and multifunction

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2
Q

What are the functional attributes of domesticated animal behaviour?

A
  • nutrient capture
  • body maintenance
  • reproduction
  • survival and perpetuation of genes
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3
Q

What are Tinbergen’s 4 Questions?

A
  • Function - why is the animal performing the behaviour / how does it improve fitness
  • Evolution - how did it evolve through natural selection?
  • Causation - what causes it to be performed / what stimuli/psychological mechanisms cause it?
  • Development - how has it developed through the lifetime of the individual, how has it been influenced by learning?
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4
Q

Describe causation of behaviour

A
  • eliciting stimuli
  • neural mechanism to produce
    e.g., animal aggression
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5
Q

What 3 underlying premises is evolution of behaviour based on?

A
  • Behaviour affects the survival and/or reproduction of the individual
  • Behaviour is variable and affected/determined by genes
  • Behaviour genes are heritable
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6
Q

What is behaviour subject to and what is it determined by?

A

subject to natural selection and thus evolution

determined by physical body of the animal

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7
Q

Define embodiment of behaviour

A

morphological limitations of behaviour

embodiment as anatomy evolves so does behaviour - inextricably linked

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8
Q

What is evolution of behaviour inferred from?

A

palaeontology (morphological possibilities/limitations) and ecological niche

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9
Q

Define domestication

A

process by which a population of animals becomes adapted to man and to the captive environment by a combination of genetic changes occurring over generations and environmentally induced developmental events recurring during each generation

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10
Q

What does domestication assume/not assume?

A
  • Does not assume that the genes and the environment operate independently
  • Assumes captive environment is different from wild ancestral environment - these differences are consistent over generations - allows evolutionary forces to change gene pool
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11
Q

How can humans accelerate domestication changes in phenotype?

A

by artificial or gene transfer

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12
Q

Describe the process of loss and/or exaggeration of wild to domesticated traits

A
  • select behaviour traits/lack of traits
  • physical traits - embodiment, linked genes/pleiotropy
  • changed environment = changed external stimulation of behaviour
  • changed environment = changed development of behaviour
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13
Q

What are the pre-adaptations for domestication?

A
  • large gregarious social groups
  • non-aggressive
  • promiscuous matings
  • precocial
  • tameable, short flight distance from humans, readily controlled, limited sensitivity to changes in environment
  • limited agility and non-shelter seeking
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14
Q

Describe large gregarious social groups in pre-adaptations for domestication

A
  • dominance hierarchy
  • males affiliated with group
  • these are unfavourable - territorial family groups with separate males
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15
Q

Describe promiscuous matings in pre-adaptations for domestication

A

sexual signals by movement or posture rather than colour or morphology

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16
Q

Describe precocial in pre-adaptations for domestication

A
  • precocious development, ready to leave the nest at once
  • easily separated from parents of altricial young
  • prolonged period of parental care
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17
Q

Define altricial

A

need to be fed in nest, immature etc

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18
Q

What are the reasons for domestication?

A

recognised human need for
- control of food production
- clothing, labour transport
- religious
- protection against pests

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19
Q

What are the exceptions for the reasons for domestication?

A

dog
cat - without many important pre-adaptations

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20
Q

How is the dog an exception for reasons of domestication?

A

may have scavenged around human habitations and ‘evolved’
i.e. selection pressure for the lifestyle leading to taming etc.

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21
Q

How is the cat an exception for reasons of domestication?

A
  • Territorial, not living in large social groups, aloof towards humans
  • Breeding not so well controlled as in other species and freedom of movement is less restricted – unique commensal relationship with humans?
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22
Q

What are the approaches to the study of effects of domestication on behaviour?

A
  • comparison of wild and domestic stock
  • hybridisation
  • domestication genes
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23
Q

Describe comparison of wild and domestic stock in study of effects of domestication on behaviour

A

can wild stock represent wild ancestors of domestic stock?

uncertain origins
extinction of wild stocks
selection acting in wild population since domestication
geographical variation in wild

24
Q

Describe hybridisation in study of effects of domestication on behaviour

A
  • Verifies existence of differences
  • All problems of comparative approach with choice of stock & possibility of heterosis in crossbred giving behaviours that are not the average of the 2 parent breeds
25
Q

Give 2 examples of domestication genes in study of effects of domestication on behaviour

A
  • Avoidance of humans by captive red foxes inversely related to number of mutant coat alleles in the genotype
  • Non-agouti allele associated with ease of handling in Norway rats
    ->Homozygous black easier than brown hetero or homozygous agouti
26
Q

Describe the experimental design of comparison of Leghorn and jungle fowl in foraging-social maze test

A

test arena in cross form
- 2 arms contained sunflower seeds mixed with wood shavings - so needed to work to obtain food
- Other 2 arms commercial layer food (normal diet)
- 1 arm of each food type had an angled mirror to provide simulated companion bird

27
Q

Describe the results of the Leghorn and junglefowl in foraging-social maze test

A
  • Initial tests with single birds failed due to isolation so pairs tested
28
Q

describe the experimental design of leghorn & jungle fowl comparison in a hawk model test

A
  • Tested singly in a 1 x 2 m pen with a bowl of wheat seeds in the centre.
  • 5 mins adaptation, 5 mins observation
  • plastic hawk on string passed over pen at 2.8m height
    – observed by fowl for 2 seconds
    – behaviour recorded for a further 5 minutes.
29
Q

What are the results of the leghorn & jungle fowl hawk model test

A
  • Before the hawk model test Leghorns pecked the ground more than Jungle Fowl.
  • After the test, Jungle Fowl walked and vocalised more than Leghorns who stood alert for a greater length of time.
30
Q

Give a summary of the leghorn & junglefowl experiments

A
  • Junglefowl more active in maze and hawk tests
  • Easier to induce tonic immobility in Leghorn
  • Leghorn less active in restraint test
  • Reduced activity in Leghorn interpreted as a correlated response to selection for productivity - Resource Allocation Theory
31
Q

Describe resource allocation theory

A

○ Animals often prefer to work for food, even when it is freely available - contrafreeloading
○ Adaptive since wild animals need to invest resources in investigating possible future food sites
- For highly selected, productive domestic animals - unnecessary foraging results in wasted energy, theory suggests selection will divert energy from foraging to production in environments where food supplies freely available

32
Q

Give 2 examples of behaviours lost during domestications (turkey, hen)

A
  • copulatory behaviour in male turkeys
  • non-broody behaviour in hens
33
Q

describe maternal reactivity in domestic and wild x domestic sows (hybridisation) study

A
  • 14 sows sired either a Yorkshire or wild boar
    • Observed nursing behaviour
    • Playback of calls by trapped piglets, isolated piglets or teat fighting calls
      Human in nest test
34
Q

give an example of enhancement of behaviour

A
  • dogs bark 2.3% more than wolves
  • dogs bark in many contexts, perhaps trying to solicit attention from humans - barking can be learned
35
Q

Describe the reasons why dogs may bark more than wolves

A
  • human selection for guarding ability
  • linked genes
  • domestic environment elicits more barking/ontogeny of barking
36
Q

Describe how genes can be linked to barking

A
  • neotony/paedomorphosis - young wolves bark and vocalise more - dogs stuck in adolescence
  • belyaev foxes
37
Q

describe behavioural neoteny in barking in wolves/dogs

A
  • selection for tameability related to neoteny
  • behavioural neoteny prerequisite for retention of a placid temperament into adulthood
  • adolescent wolves bark much more than adults
38
Q

describe how selection for tameability is related to neoteny

A
  • Suggests neoteny is a prerequisite retention of a placid temperament into adulthood
  • Management systems provide many of animals needs without need for aggressive behaviours or attainment of social dominance
39
Q

Describe how behavioural neoteny is a prerequisite for retention of a placid temperament into adulthood

A
  • Young animals may be conditioned to retain juvenile behaviours
  • Raise threshold of adult behaviours by reducing threshold for JB
  • Rearing of juveniles away from adults - delay / impair development
40
Q

What are the primary effects of domestication on behaviour in:
dogs
pigs/sheep/cows
horses

A
  • Dogs - docility, fetching herding, aggression
  • Pigs, sheep, cows - reduced reactivity docility & production traits
    Horses - speed and reactivity, performance
41
Q

Describe how domestication accelerates developmental rates

A
  • accelerated sexual maturation
  • accelerated growth and maturation rates
  • accelerated behavioural development
42
Q

Describe how domestication causes accelerated sexual maturation

A
  • Selection under domestic environment
  • Absence of social competition from older, dominant animals
  • Related to better nutrition - captive wolves will breed as early as 9 months, 2 years in wild
43
Q

Describe how domestication can lead to accelerated growth and maturation rates

A
  • more energy directed towards growth
  • higher ADG often associated with abnormalities such as leg weaknesses
44
Q

describe how domestication can lead to accelerated behavioural development

A
  • Mongolian gerbils reared in cages were more active than those reared in dark burrows
  • Earlier visual stimulation than in wild
45
Q

Describe how domestication can lead to retarded behavioural development

A

Some processes have become more prolonged longer periods of social bonding in domesticated foxes

46
Q

describe developmental domestication (post-natal)

A
  • domestication supposedly seeks precocial vs altricial species
  • many domestic species altricial
47
Q

describe how the horse is developmentally precocious

A
  • can be standing and moving in relatively short period of time
  • suckling and predator avoidance
  • internal mapping systems
48
Q

Describe early human mappings

A
  • Accurately look at an object (saccade)
  • Accurately reach for an object
  • Much of early development centred around mapping systems and in particular fine tuning mapping transforms that facilitate accurate saccades and reaching
  • Reasonably complex process
49
Q

Describe saccade

A
  • basic level requiring accurate motor transforms based on current eye and hand position
  • if an object in peripheral vision appears and we saccade to that, this requires the point of the object in peripheral view is transformed accurately in motor commands
50
Q

describe reach

A
  • hand position and object position must be estimated accurately within a common reference frame (retinotopic) and the 2 position vectors subtracted in order to generate the correct motor vector to get the hand to the object
51
Q

how do humans become accurate?

A

high repetition and correction of error

52
Q

describe mappings in the horse

A

can move head and body towards objects located within its retinotopic map

same for all precocial species

53
Q

Describe the linear and serial buildup of competences

A
  • certain abilities must be established before others can develop e.g., walk before run
  • trend of innate to learned
54
Q

Describe play behaviour

A
  • Musculoskeletal development and general condition
  • Social interaction-dominance hierarchy
  • One of the most important activities that facilitates development of a range of physical & cognitive competences
55
Q

what is critical to behavioural development and behavioural trajectory

A

effect of early handling, weaning, diet and husbandry environment

Behaviour and Welfare of Domesticated Animals (5 decks)

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