PQ's Flashcards
List 4 stressors on dairy cows on intensive farm
Excessive overcrowding
Resting cows being trampled without notice
Long periods spent standing on concrete
Stress related disease
List 4 stresses related to animals kept in captivity
Abiotic environmental stressors: presence or absence of critical sensory stim, sound, light, odours
Confinement-specific stressors: restricted movement, forced proximity to humans
List the 5 freedoms
1994, John Webster
- Freedom from thirst, hunger, malnutrition
- From discomfort
- From pain, injury and disease
- To express normal behavious
- Fear and distress
List 4 effects of early weaning in piglets
Removal from mother
Sudden change in diet from milk to solid
Sudden change of environment
Being mixed with piglets from other litters
List 2 reasons for separation anxiety in dogs
May be due to boredom, fear of abandonment
Loneliness, Lack of attention
Ways to stop stereotypic behaviours of horses
Keeping them in pasture, provide ad lib hay and social contact
Use of collar: skin irritation, increased stress after it is taken off, spend time crib-biting
Environment enrichment, behaviour therapy
Classic conditioning
Present neutral stimuli with an effective stimulus, animal then links the 2
Operant conditioning
Animal changes its behavious to a situation based on its association with a stimulus
Operant counter conditioning
Management of horse behaviour: put horse in unpleasant situation but give it treats, so the fear eliciting stim does not scare it. Eventually the horse gets used to it
List 4 advantages of keeping animals in groups
Less likely to be attacked by predators (wild) Defence of vulnerable young Detect danger Sharing the food discovered Social learning
List Tinberg’s 4 questions
What is the causation of the behaviour? (stimuli)
What is the function of the behaviour? (reproductive success)
How does the behaviour develop during ontogeny? (modified by individual experiences)
How does the behaviour develop during phylogeny? (evolutionary)
Reasons for drinking dirty water in cows
Mineral deficiency in phosphorus/ Sulphur
Behaviour of chickens
Stabilize a peck order (hierarchy)
Form new hen groups by mixing before start of production
Provide many feed and water points and a lot of floor area when the flock is settling
If mixing groups, put equal numbers of the subgroups
Horse vision and blind spot
Directly in front and directly behind
What is ethology
The science of animal behaviour
Appropriate temperature for chicks
There was 3 picture, optimal chicks all over the place, too warm chicks outside, too cold chicks crowded together
3 welfare problems (Everyman)
Is the animal living a (reasonably) natural life?
Is the animal fit and healthy? (functioning well)
Is the animal happy? (feeling well)
3 Welfare Problems (Scientific)
Is the animal living in an environment consistent with that in which the species has evolved and to which it has adapted?
Is the animal able to achieve normal growth and function, good health and can sustain fitness in adult life?
Is the animal experiencing a sense of mental satisfaction, or at least freedom from mental distress?
Stereotypes in horses?
Locomotor: weaving (4%) and box walking (2%)
Oral: wood chewing (18%), crib biting (4%)
Can be induced by frustration, CNS dysfunction. Indicator of poor welfare in captive animals
Nesting behaviour
1 or 2 days before partuition sows seek an isolated area to nest (2.5-6km from herd)
Dry place, protected from precipitation and light
Gathers material for bedding
Finished 2-4 hours before partuition
Only ungulates that build a nest
Does the sow check the straw to see if any piglets are there before lying down?
Yes
What do goats like to eat
Leaves and shoots from trees and bushes
How to prevent cats scratching furniture
Cats confined to indoors will use household items if there is nothing else to scratch
Provide scratching post in prominent position, near sleeping area
Cover the furniture with plastic
Mitochondrial DNA of dogs
Prove ancestry
Coprophagy in dogs
Dogs are scavengers, so anything is food to dogs
Can be caused by nutritional (thiamine or vit B) or digestive enzyme def.
Compulsive behaviour in response to stress, frustration or anxiety
What do cows spend most of their time doing at pasture?
Ruminating
Polyandry
The mating of one female with more than one male, while each male mates only with one female
Exclusive is very rare- shorebirds like the sandpiper
Phases of sleep?
REM and nREM
Where do goats like to lie?
Higher ground
Circadian rhythm, Control
Melatonin promotes sleep
Other influencing factors: nutrition, hormone-feedback, social stimuli
Many hormones (ACTH, cortsiol) and body temo have circadian rhythms, and have effect on individual’s behaviour, alertness and cognitive function
Sleeping when GCC levels are low (evening) and ends when highest (morning)
Hierarchy and bonding between horses
Bonds are demonstrated by reciprocal following, mutual grooming and standing together
Alpha mare and alpha stallion. New horses are bottom of the pack
Mutualistic behaviour
The actor and the recipients of the behaviour both benefit
selfish behaviour
The actor benefits, the recipients experience a cost
Altruistic behaviour
the actor experiences a cost while the recipients benefit
Tindbergen:
Behaviour causation, function, evolution during ontogeny and phylogeny
3 animal welfare aspects:
Affective state, natural living, health and functioning
What factors influence dairy cows consumption of dry matter?
TMR quality
Heat stress and other stressors (e.g calving, lameness, overcrowding etc)
Ranking order
Number of meals a day and times of meals
The concept of applied ethology
Studies the behaviour of domesticated animals and gives practical info for animals keeping (welfare, production optimization, human-animal interactions, design of facilities, dealing with abnormal behaviours)
Behavioural needs
The natural behaviour of which the animals are motivated
Horse angle
while grazing
Forms of communication
auditory (delivered immediately)
olfactory pheromones
Classical conditioning
Allows animals to predict events
Operant conditioning
Animals are able to predict what happens next and have some control over the timing and delivery of its own reward
What do most cattle like to spend time doing?
Lying, resting
Domestication
Dog mt DNA
What is motivation and why is it important?
Motivation is the cause of animal behaviour, “sums up” the input stimuli (internal state, external stimuli) and determines the output behaviour
Understanding the underlying mechanism could be useful for investigating abnormal behaviour.
The origins of abnormal behaviour helps to improve the animal welfare and training methods
