Considerations In Using Normal Behaviour To Indicate Welfare Flashcards
What does natural selection ensure?
Natural selection ensures maximisation of fitness in a particular environment
In a captive situation how would you judge if an animal is exhibiting normal behaviour?
In captive situations you’d judge if the animal is exhibiting normal behaviour by using the wild ancestral repertoire of behaviour as a template to compare against
Why might natural behaviour not be a good indicator of welfare?
Natural behaviour may not be a good indicator for welfare since some species show flexibility to adapt to different environments
Some species show flexibility to adapt to different environments through environmental effects on expression of genes and through learning
What are the 3 reasons why the wild ancestral repertoire not be see/used?
Natural behaviour from the ancestral repertoire may not be necessary in the captive environment and so not shown/used
Also the animal may exhibit new behaviour in the new captive environment that it has learnt, that is more useful in the environment
Natural ancestral behaviour may not be exhibited due to humans purposefully or inadvertently selecting animals for certain traits
Human selection of animals by traits may change how and when the animal performs some ancestral behaviour
How might ancestral behaviour be expressed if selective breeding altered it?
Behaviour tends to remain in the animals repertoire despite the changes but may be expressed in a different way like:
- different frequencies
- different durations
- different intensities
Name an example of a study that looks into how selective breeding alter the animals natural behaviour
Per Jensen’s group in Sweden looked at the behaviour from domestic egg laying hens and comparing it to its red jungle fowl ancestors
How did Per Jensen’s group study the hens ancestral behaviour and what were their findings?
Jensen’s group looked at a wide range of different behaviour patterns associated with adaption to an unpredictable vs predictable environment
Jensen’s group found that the egg laying hens were adapted to a predictable environment as seen by:
- showing less caution
- showing less motivation to explore
- foraging in 1 area for a long time before moving to the next area
Why is it important to consider the effects on the animals in captivity in respect to their natural behaviour?
You need to be careful about choosing a comparison to the behaviour exhibited because the captive/domesticated environment may alter ‘normal’ behaviours to something more useful to them
What are the 3 reasons for us to be careful about choosing a comparison to the behaviour exhibited in captive environments?
1) Behaviour naturally varying in different environments
2) The behaviour seen is not representative of the whole range of the behaviour seen in the ancestor
3) The behaviour not being expressed in the same way as in the ancestral species
The behaviour could have altered in:
- frequency
- duration
- intensity
When will you use a Time/a/Activity Budget?
Time/activity budget data is often used in situations where it’s either:
- difficult to do an intervention
- to collect that data you'd probably have to disturb the animal
What may an animal rearrange it’s activities in time to prioritize?
What they favour
Save energy
Current needs
Avoid exposure to certain events
Why do we use time/activity budgets?
How an animal proportions it’s time for each activity can provide a broad indicator of welfare
How are time/activity budgets done?
You observe the animal through a set time period
You then note the proportion of time spent on each activity in their ethogram
The behaviour is usually recorded via scan sampling
To determine if welfare is an issue you’ll need a control/baseline to see if the behaviour is normal
How can time/activity budgets be related to the naturalness concept?
By looking at do animals show the same proportion of activities as their ancestors?
In 1989 Dawkins did a time/activity budget for red jungle fowl, what were her findings?
Dawkins 1989 found that when they were active red jungle fowl spent most of their time ground scratching and ground pecking
What did Dawkins 1989 study mean for captive hens?
During the 1980’s chickens were kept in small cages with little to no substrate to scratch and peck in
Dawkins 1989 findings brought up a potential issue with farming practices of the time
However further questions were needed to know if the caged chickens were in a poor welfare state, such as:
Do laying hens still show those behaviours?
So laying hens still need to do those behaviours?
Does the behaviour perform a function that otherwise cannot be obtained?
Are they still motivated to perform those behaviours?
Is this behaviour still valuable to them?
If chickens are unable to perform this behaviour is their welfare affected in other ways like:
Can it compromise their health?
Can it compromise their affective state?
Can time/activity budgets tell us whether something is or isn’t a welfare issue?
No, time/activity budgeting analysis can bring up potential welfare issues but it doesn’t tell us if it is a welfare issue
What does looking at the time/budget within a group allow us to do?
This allows us to have a control if the group is compared to itself
We can look at changes in situations and whether or not there’s corresponding changes in behaviour
However we will still need to interpret whether or not those changes are a sign of good or bad welfare
What was Wells 2005’s study about?
Gorilla responses to visitor presence
How did Wells 2005 conduct their experiment?
Wells compared the gorillas behaviours at high density visitor presence with behaviour at low density visitor presence
What were Wells 2005’s findings?
Wells 2005 found that there was:
- decreases in resting behaviour during high density visitor presence
- increases in the following during high density visitor presence:
- auto-grooming
- aggression
- abnormal behaviour
However the findings may not matter in terms of welfare since Valence is not seen
We still need to know the following to say if visitor presence impacts welfare:
Does it matter?
What is the valence of the situation?
Does it affect function/health?
Does it affect affective states?
What are the 4 advantages of Time/activity budgets?
1) They’re fairly simple and easy to do with an appropriate ethogram
2) They’re non-intrusive and non-invasive
3) Test in home setting
4) Can provide a broad overview of the wider picture of how the animal budgets their day and how it may shift depending on other stimuli
What are the 5 disadvantages of Time/activity budgets?
1) This is mainly due to timing and sample periods
It may not be a long enough period to be representative
2) Scans may not pick up event behaviour
3) You need to be in careful consideration of:
Sampling intervals to avoid artificial inflation of data or missing data
Control comparisons
Time period of recording to account for adaptions to the stimuli
4) It may not reflect Valence or the behaviours importance
5) It requires other measures to support the time/activity budget interpretations for welfare
What is location and spacing?
This is where you measure where the animal is and where it is in relation to other animals
Location and spacing can be used to understand valence within a particular context
If the group of animals are close together they could be scared of a negative stimulus
Vice versa
What things do you need to be aware of with location and spacing?
You do need to be aware that if the animal is in a situation we can’t control, multiple factors can affect their location and spacing
Due to this we need to be careful of interpretation
You need to be aware of time frames when recording data as it needs to be relevant to the animal
Why might an animal stay in an area?
Animals can stay in an area due to preferred resources
Why might an animals avoid an area?
Animals may avoid an area due to localised stressors
Give examples of why an individual may move away from a group?
Sickness
Bullying
Birthing
Give an example of why an individual may fail to move away from the group or fail to use resources?
Pain
Give examples of why animals may cluster together
In response to generalised threats
To conserve heat
To utilise the same resource at the same time
To interact with each other
Why do you need to be careful when interpreting location and spacing data?
Location and spacing can’t discriminate against the potential reasons to be together or alone
Due to this you need to be aware of this when making interpretations of the data, and often need to measure other things in order to see if a welfare issue is present
We may need further information on context and or other measures to interpret the data correctly
