Behaviors of Domestic Animals Lecture 1 and 2

Domestic Animals

Animals that have been brought under human contro; and have adapted to life with humnas

Behavior

the way in which an animal or person acts in response to a particular situation or stimulus

What are the two types of factors?

Internal and external factors

What kinds of survival are there?

Individual and species survival

Behavior is difficult to define in a precise manner…

a simple muscle refles

a series of complex activities

may involve 1 individual or may involve multiple individual

Ethology

The science of animal behavior: its causation and its function

According to Broom and Fraser, what is the def of ethology?

The observation and detailed description of behavior with the objective of finding out how biological mechanisms function

What do you need to understand before you can notice what is wrong?

Normal behaviors

Knowledge of animal behavior helps us

solve and practice problems

Examples of Applied Ethology

Welfare assessment

Animal Production Optimization

Behavioral Control

Behavioral Disorders

Conservation Biology

Welfare Assessment

What is best practice?

domestic animals must cope with altered environments

consider stressors

What is the welfare of animals?

it is an animal in its state in regards to its attempt to cope with its environment

Welfare assessment must be…

objective first

Animal Production Optimization

farming enterprises must be profitable to survive

consider input cost vs. output value

knowledge of animal behavior helps achieve optimization

happy and healthy animal produce more and better

Conspeific

a member of the same species

Behavioral Control

the essence of keeping animals in captivity is to control their behavior

ex. fencing

Do animals remember bad experiences?

Yes, we want to minimize fear

Behavior Disorders

Aggression

• inter-animal

• animal-human

• fear is the main reason for companion animal

Inappropriate elimination

Anxiety

Conservation Biology

Has two kinds: In-Situ and Ex-Situ Conservation

In-Situ Conservation

habitat preservation and restoration

behavioral understanding improves efforts and monitoring

Ex-Situ Conservation

•Captive breeding & rearing

•Compromise between need of caretakers and animals at best

•Challenges associated with maintenance of normal behavior à Reintroduction

American focus on ethology

lab rodent learning, positive and negative reinforcement

European focus on ethology

observation of wild animals in nature

Oskar Heinroth

•First to use the term “ethology”

Nikolass Tinbergen

•Pioneer of experimental ethology

Konrad Lorenz

•1^st coherent theory of instinct and innate behavior

Who won a Nobel prize in 1973?

•Niko Tenbergen, Konrad Lorenz & Karl Von Frisch

•“Genetically programmed behavior patterns”

Tinbergen’s Four Questions

What is the causation of the behavior?

What is the function of the behavior?

How does the behavior develop during ontogeny?

How does the behavior develop during phylgeny?

Cognition

the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. (Oxford)

Behavior is one aspect of evaluating an animal’s _____

Quality of Life

Sentience

•The capacity in which an animal/human is aware of themselves and of their interaction with the environment. (ie self-awareness)

A sentient being is one that has some ability to:

Evaluate the actions of others in relation to itself and 3rd parties

Remember some of its own action and their consequences

Assess risk

Have some feeling

Have some degree of awareness

Degree of sentience may be determined by:

similarity to humans

utility to humans

complexity of life/behavior

learning ability

functioning of brain and nervous system

indication of pain/distress

studies illustrating a biological basis for feelings

indication of awareness

Demands of “social” living _____

dictate a greater degree of cognition and sentience

When observing an animal, don’t

assume certain emotions or feelings

Be objective and detailed

Anthropomorphism

ascribing human emotional to animals feelings

Ethogram

a complete and detailed description of the variety of behaviors an animal is capable of showing

Categories of behaviors

•Continuous

•Repeated series

•Display

•Unit of activity or Action pattern

•Rhythms

Initial consideration of the following is important

Alertness or awareness of surroundings

Willingness to move

Quality of movement/gait

Presence or absence of common actions or reflexes

Consider surroundings

The Hawthorne Effect

how an animal behavior changes when a human enter its space

Experimental design consideration

must be able to replicate

Eliminate bias

Cintrol group

replication within the experiment is important

individual variation within a species

animal identification techniques

Behavior sampling

•Focuses only on one type of behavior or action

•Example: Sniffing or pecking

•Useful for rare behaviors

Point sampling

•“Instantaneous sampling”

•Observe at regular, predetermined points of time

•Presence or absence of a behavior

Partial Interval Recording

•Longer period of time observing

•Record after observation

•Presence or absence of a behavior