Environmental Challenges Flashcards

1
Q

What are environmental challenges in nature?

A

Intrinsic and natural.

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2
Q

What are environmental challenges in captivity?

A
  • Few or none.
  • Too many.
  • Good or bad?
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3
Q

Why do animals explore?

A
  1. To gather information about the environment necessary for survival.
    - map building
    - habituation
  2. To exert control over the environment.
  3. Animals voluntarily seek challenges.
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4
Q

How does environmental challenges affect behavior?

A

They are an integral part of behavioral development and well being.

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5
Q

What can happen in the absence of environmental challenges?

A
  • May engender apathy.
  • An enduring sense of boredom.
  • Increased risk of stereotypic behavior.
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6
Q

What is the definition of enrichment?

IMPORTANT - KNOW THIS

A

Environmental enrichment is the alteration of animals’ microenvironments to provide them with the opportunity to perform species-specific behaviors that we perceive as positive, while reducing abnormal behaviors.

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7
Q

What happens to animals raised in barren environments?

A
  • Decreased brain weights.
  • May be overwhelmed by novelty or change.
  • May redirect exploratory behavior on inappropriate objects (tail biting piglets).
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8
Q

What happens to animals raised in enriched environments?

A
  • Investigate novel objects more thoroughly.
  • Escape from predatory attacks more quickly.
  • Have more versatile behavioral repertoires.
  • More flexible in dealing with environmental challenges.
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9
Q

What are the extremes of environmental stimuli?

A
  • Too little = apathy.

- Too much = fear.

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10
Q

What does the effect of environmental stimuli depend on?

A

Animals previous experiences.

-ex: pigs raised in barren environment may stress and die when overloaded with stimuli during transport.

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11
Q

What are the environmental differences between birds raised in enriched environments vs barren environments?

A

Enriched

  • Quicker to approach novel objects.
  • Shorter bouts of interaction with object.
  • Reduced fear of strangers.
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12
Q

What is contrafreeloading?

A

Animals will work to earn their food even when they can obtain it for free.

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13
Q

What abnormal behaviors can a barren environment lead to?

A
  • Sterotypies: repetitive, “functionless” behavior.
  • Self-injurious: hair pulling, self biting, mutilation.
  • Redirected: lack of foraging opportunity can cause tail biting in pigs.
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14
Q

What affect can a barren environment have on the health of an animal?

A

Diseases of captivity, not seen in the wild.

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15
Q

What is stereotypy?

A
  • Persistent, unvarying repetition of seemingly functionless behavior.
  • Displayed by over 85 million farm, laboratory and zoo animals worldwide.

ex: pacing polar bear in a zoo.

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16
Q

What are the three different types of stereotypy?

A
  1. Oral
    - cribbing in horses.
    - tongue rolling in cattle.
  2. Locomotor
    - pacing in confined animals.
    - tail chasing in dogs.
  3. Hallucinatory
    - fly biting in dogs.
    - shadow chasing in dogs.
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17
Q

What can happen along with stereotypies?

A

Most (~ 68%) situations that cause stereotypies also decrease welfare.

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18
Q

What can happen to non-stereotyping or low-stereotyping individuals in sub-optimal environments?

A

They could well have have the poorest welfare.

  • passive coping: inactive, seen in submissives.
  • active coping: active, seen in confident animals.
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19
Q

What are stereotypies are warning sign of?

A
  • Potential suffering, but never use as the sole index of welfare.
  • non-stereotyping or low-stereotyping individuals should not be overlooked or assumed to be fairing well.
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20
Q

What should you not do when addressing stereotypies?

A

-Assume enrichments are failures if behavior isn’t immediately reduced.
-Try to reduce only with punishment or physical prevention.
~must treat their underlying motivation for behavior.

21
Q

How are stereotypies treated?

A
  • Environment enrichment: preferred treatment.
  • Reinforcement of alternative behaviors.
  • Genetic selection: high and low fp (feather picking) poultry in 7 to 10 generations.
  • Pharmacology: serotonin enhancing drugs, opiate antagonists.
  • Punishment: remote, rarely used alone.
22
Q

Sometimes stereotypies cannot?

A

go away!

23
Q

What is SIB?

A

Self Injurious Behavior

  • hair pulling
  • self biting
24
Q

How common is SIB in monkeys?

A

About 10% of captive, individually-housed monkeys engage in SIB

25
Q

When does SIB occur in primates?

A

It occurs in emotionally disturbing situations, over which the subject has no control.

  • approached by fear inducing personnel.
  • disruption of daily routine.
  • removal of companion.
26
Q

How is SIB treated?

A
  • Environment Enrichment: social companionship.
  • Foraging Toys: seen to increase SIB in some studies due to arousal. Decrease motor stereotypies.
  • Medication: decrease arousal. Interferes with research. Recurrence of behavior.
27
Q

What is redirected behavior?

A

Normal behavior is thwarted, now behavior is performed on substitute.

  • tail biting in piglets.
  • cross sucking in calves.
  • feather pecking in chickens.
28
Q

How is redirected behavior treated?

A
  1. Management of Animals
    - problem of captivity.
    - natural (edinburg pig park)
  2. Address Motivation
    - provide oral stimulation.
    - straw for piglets.
    - foraging for chickens.
  3. Amputation of Body Part
    - doesn’t address motivation.
    - tail docking piglets, may bite ears or stump.
    - beak trimming chickens, prevents damage.
29
Q

What constitutes enrichment?

A
  • Need to know natural behavior for species involved.

- Consider all the senses used by species.

30
Q

Enrichment items are?

A
  • Safe and inexpensive.

- If reusable, should be durable and washable.

31
Q

How should enrichment items be used?

A

-Appropriate to species specific behavior.
~ex: immobile vs moving carcass for cheetah.

-Give time to use.
~if never had enrichment, may be fearful initially.

-Rotate.
~some animals habituate to toy & need novelty periodically.

-Plentiful if animals housed in groups.
~chimps fought over termite mound.

32
Q

How can you provide enrichment for horses?

A
  • Foraging Opportunities: spread out hay, multiple types of hay, toys.
  • Social Companionship: can be an unbreakable mirror, or even a goat.
33
Q

How do you provide enrichment for pigs?

A

-Law in Brittan in 2003, farmers to put a toy in every pigsty or face up to 3 months in jail.

-“Environment Enrichment” by providing manipulable material.
~footballs, basketballs, bowling balls.
~chains, straw.

-The important thing is to see pigs happy in their environment & they like to forage with their noses.

34
Q

What was the setup for the experiment on enrichment for chickens?

A
  • 2 different types of feeders.
  • Feed troughs w/o balls or w/ 7 tennis balls to hide feed.
  • Commercial white leghorn type hens, 4 per cage.
  • Experimental period from 22 to 32 weeks of age.
35
Q

What was seen in the experiment on enrichment for chickens?

A

Birds with Balls

  • more time prefeeding behavior (extension of the neck over the trough, or pecking at the balls).
  • more time thrusting (pushing other birds aside to eat).
  • less feather damage 27 weeks, but not at 32 weeks.
36
Q

What was egg production& body weight like in the 2 groups during the experiment on enrichment for chickens?

A

It was the same.

37
Q

How do you provide enrichment for pet birds?

A

-T shirt bags, fruit cage, toy box, treat basket.
-Cotton spring rope, plastic diamonds, plastic coil, swinging ladder.
-Tissue boxes, paperback books, 2x4 untreated.
-Foraging
~tree
~rocks in bowls
~move bowls
~skewers
~paper balls

38
Q

How do you provide enrichment for cats?

A

-Social Companionship (human or conspecific)
-Foraging Opportunities
~food balls
~hide food
~fishing for cats
-Toys
~paper balls or bags
~ball in bathtub
~wand toys
-Scratching Posts & Cat Trees

39
Q

How do you provide enrichment for dogs?

A
-Social Companionship
   ~play dates, dog parks, scheduled play
-Foraging
   ~food balls, digging pit, treat hunt
-Training
   ~basic, agility, breed dependent
40
Q

TV FOR DOGS

What were the 5 types of stimulation used in this experiment?

A
  • Control Condition (no visual stim)
  • Blank TV Screen
  • Moving Images of Conspecifics
  • Moving Images of Interspecifics
  • Moving Images of Humans
41
Q

TV FOR DOGS

How long was the study done?

A

4 hours per day for 5 days, with an intervening period of two days between conditions.

42
Q

TV FOR DOGS

What was the outcome?

A
  • Little time looking at tv monitors (10.8%).
  • Significantly more time looking at moving images vs blank screen.
  • Images of conspecifics were more likely to attract the dogs to the front of the kennels vs blank screen.
  • More time spent at front of enclosures.
  • Interest in all experimental conditions declined over time.
  • All conditions encouraged significantly less vocalization & movement than control condition.
43
Q

TV FOR DOGS

What was the conclusion drawn from the experiment?

A

Behavior of kenneled dogs is influenced by visual sitmualtion in the form of tv programs.

44
Q

TOYS FOR DOGS

What were the conditions of this experiment?

A
  • -5 toys were used (squeaky ball, non-squeaky ball, nylabone chew, tug rope, and boomer ball).
  • Each toy given for six days.
45
Q

TOYS FOR DOGS

What happened during this experiment?

A
  • Spent relatively little time (<8%) of the overall observation time playing w/the toys.
  • Preference for the nylabone chew over the other toys.
  • Interest in toys waned over time.
  • Habituation to nylabone was the slowest.
46
Q

TOYS FOR DOGS

What was the conclusion dram from the experiment?

A
  • Welfare of kenneled dogs may be slightly enhanced by addition of toys to their kennels.
  • Toys should be rotated to encourage exploration and reduce habituation.
47
Q

How do you provide enrichment for rodents?

A
  • Group Housing
  • Nesting Material
  • Red Tinted Nest Box
  • Wood Blocks
  • Running Wheel
  • PVC Pipe
  • Plastic Balls
48
Q

Why do you provide enrichment for laboratory rodents?

A

-Stress is a potential variable in studies.
~decreasing variability allows for less animals to be used.
~decreasing variability increases validity of study.

-Environmental enrichment can reduce stress in lab rats.

-Measurable parameters linked to stress are:
~unstable blood chem
~abnormal organ size (particularly adrenal glands)
~incidence of fighting.

49
Q

Conclusions to Environmental Enrichment

A
  • If animals are kept in captivity, humans are obligated to enhance life.
  • Enrichment makes for more behaviorally sound animals.
  • Once abnormal behavior starts, enrichment may not alleviate it.