Jonathan J. Cooper

Frustrations of fur-farmed mink

Mink may thrive in captivity but they miss having water to romp about in.

Clever hounds: social cognition in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris)

This paper reviews the reasons why domestic dogs make good models to investigate cognitive processes related to social living and describes experimental approaches that can be adopted to investigate such processes in dogs. Domestic dogs are suitable models for investigating social cognition skills for three broad reasons. First, dogs originated from wolves, social animals that engage in a number of co-operative behaviours, such as hunting and that may have evolved cognitive abilities that help them predict and interpret the actions of other animals. Second, during domestication dogs are likely to have been selected for mental adaptations for their roles in human society such as herding or companionship. Third, domestic dogs live in a human world and “enculturation” may facilitate the development of relevant mental skills in dogs. Studies of social cognition in animals commonly use experimental paradigms originally developed for pre-verbal human infants. Preferential gaze, for example, can be used as a measure of attention or “surprise” in studies using expectancy violation. This approach has been used to demonstrate simple numerical competence in dogs. Dogs also readily use both conspecific and human social signals (e.g. looking or pointing) as information sources to locate hidden rewards such as food or favourite toys. Such abilities make dogs particularly good models for investigating perspective-taking tasks, where animals are required to discriminate between apparently knowledgeable and apparently ignorant informants.

The effect of increasing visual horizons on stereotypic weaving: implications for the social housing of stabled horses

Stabled horses commonly perform stereotypic patterns of weaving, where the horse shifts its weight from side to side often swinging its head. Ten warm-blood types, of which five were known to reliably weave, were housed in similar 12x12 ft wooden loose boxes in a single stable block surrounding a courtyard. Each horse was exposed to each of five stable designs. These were: the conventional front top-half of the door open only with a view of the stable courtyard (F); front half-door open and a similar half-door open at the back of the stable with a view to the surrounding fields (FB); back open only (B); front and one-side panel open with a view into the adjacent stable (FS); and front, back and both sides open (All4). During observation days, horses were brought in from the field at 0830 h, fed concentrate at 0930 h, fed haylage at 1005 h and turned out at 1600 h. Behaviour was recorded from 0900 to 1040 h, 1200 to 1300 h and 1500 to 1600 h. Weaving was most common prior to feeding in the morning and prior to putting out to pasture in the afternoon. There was a significant effect of stable design on weaving, with less weaving in the FS and All4 designs than the F treatment. There was also a significant effect of stable design on repetitive nodding, though in this case, FB, B, FS and All4 designs each reduced nodding compared with the F treatment. The effect of stable design can be explained in a number of ways. Firstly, it could be the novelty of the environmental change, though there was no evidence in this study of an increase in stereotypy with prolonged exposure to the new stable designs. Secondly, opening windows may increase opportunities for environmental interaction, and the expression of new activities may compete with stereotypic behaviour for the horses time. Thirdly, the open windows may allow expression of specific activities such as environmental monitoring or social interaction that are denied by the conventional stable.

Behavioural Priorities of Laying Hens

This article reviews the behavioural requirements of laying hens. It primarily concentrates on evidence from consumer demand studies and relates this to the behavioural and physical consequences of denying hens opportunities to express certain activities. Hens clearly place a high value on food and this provides a useful yardstick for assessing the value of other resources. Hens have been found to work for access to a range of additional resources including pecking, scratching and dust bathing substrates, perches (particularly prior to nightfall), additional space and nestboxes. So far, only nestboxes (prior to oviposition) have been found to have a value comparable to food (in food-deprived hens).To date, however, no study has systematically compared the value of a range of resources. Furthermore, only a limited number of studies have related deprivation of specific resources to behavioural or physiological measures of distress. Egg production is clearly very efficient economically when hens are housed in conventional wire cages and provided with adequate food and water, but the hens show signs of frustrated nesting and pecking/scratching behaviour in these conditions. Modified or enriched cages allow for these activities, as well as perching, and, potentially dust bathing, but do not allow full expression of exploratory or comfort behaviours, Free-range systems, percheries and other types of colony housing provide opportunities for all of the above, although at high stocking densities social competition and limited space may restrict performance of these behaviours for certain birds.

Stereotypic behaviour affects environmental preference in bank voles, Clethrionomys glareolus

Abstract The performance of sterotypies by caged animals may be a mechanism for coping with unfavourable conditions. This hypothesis was investigated in two experiments where voles were given a choice between a barren and an enriched environment in a simple preference test. In experiment 1, three out of eight voles developed stereotypies. These voles decreased their preference for the enriched environment once stereotypies had developed. In experiment 2, nine out of 16 voles developed stereotypies. Again, the development of stereotypies was associated with a decrease in preference for the enriched environment, whereas there was no change in the preference of non-stereotypic voles. The performance of stereotypies may be associated with a change in perception. Such a change may allow voles to cope with aversive conditions.

Demand for nest boxes in laying hens.

Domestic hens (Gallus gallus domesticus) from commercial laying strains have been selected for high egg yield and may lay over 300 eggs in their working lives. In conventional wire cages, there is little opportunity to perform either nest seeking or nest building activities, which may lead to frustration each time an egg is laid. To measure the demand for a well-defined nest-site, which may act as a consummatory stimulus for nest seeking behaviour and an appetitive stimulus for nest building behaviour, 16 hens were allowed to work to gain access to a pen containing two littered, enclosed nest boxes. The cost of access to the nest boxes was varied by changing the width of the vertical gap, which divided a home pen containing food, water and a perch from the pen containing the nest boxes (gaps of 220, 140, 125, 110 and 95 mm, compared with mean body width of 117 mm). The number of entries to the nest pen declined with narrowing gap, whilst the number of failed attempts to enter rose, but all 16 hens persevered with entering the nest pen prior to oviposition and laid in the nest boxes. Between 120 and 30 min to oviposition hens made many entries with the 220 mm gap (27.6), but this declined to no entries with 95 mm gap. Hens made few entries in the last half hour prior to ovipositoin (1.3) but there was no significant decline in entries as the gap narrowed (1.1 with 95 mm gap). The number of nest inspections and nest entries also declined with width of gap, but there was no effect on time spent in the nest boxes. Hens passed gaps of 220, and 140 mm to return to the nest pen following oviposition, but did not pass gaps of 125, 110 or 95 mm. We therefore conclude that the narrow gap width can be used to assess the demand for environmental requirements. Hens were willing to pay a high cost to gain access to a nest box prior to oviposition, so prelaying behaviour may be frustrated in hens without a well-defined, littered nest site.

Nesting behaviour of hens: Effects of experience on motivation

There is some controversy as to whether animals can be deprived of resources that they have never experienced. Will domestic hens (Gallus gallus domesticus), for example, that have been housed in conventional wire cages, be as motivated to use well-defined, littered nests as hens with prior experience of nests? This was tested by varying the quality of nesting cues (trials with and without an enclosed nest box) and measuring the performance of and demand for exploratory behaviour in 16 hens with and 16 hens without prior experience of such a nest site. Each hen was tested once in a two-pen arena. The ‘home’ pen contained food, water and a perch in all trials, whereas the ‘nest’ pen had an enclosed nest box attached in only half the trials. The demand for searching behaviour was assessed by varying the width of the doorway between the two pens (widths of 160, 140, 120 and 100 mm were used, compared with a mean hen width of 122 ± 11 mm). Steps, inspections and passages between the two pens were recorded in the 3 hours prior to oviposition. All hens with the nest box laid in it, and all hens without the nest box scraped out a hollow in a corner of the arena and laid there. All hens entered the nest pen prior to oviposition and there were fewer visits with narrower gaps (38 ± 6, 22 ± 9, 12 ± 3 and 4 ± 1 visits with gaps of 160 mm, 140 mm, 120 mm and 100 mm, respectively, for hens with the nest; 133 ± 32, 107 ± 17, 73 ± 20 and 49 ± 15 for hens with no nest box; p < 0.01 for both), but no other effect on searching or nesting activities. Hens with the nest box performed less exploratory behaviour (71 ± 5 inspections and 159 ± 21 steps) and made fewer passages (20 ± 5 visits) than hens without the nest box (188 ± 18 inspections, 349 ± 44 steps and 74 ± 9 visits; all p < 0.001). There was no difference in exploratory or nesting behaviour between nest-naive and nest-experienced hens, and no difference in their response to gap width. It may therefore be possible to assess deprivation by quantifying the motivation to persevere with appetitive activities in the absence of consummatory stimuli. In this experiment demand for, and expression of, nest-seeking behaviour were independent of prior experience of nesting cues and the enclosed nest box acted as a consummatory stimulus for nest-seeking behaviour.

Thoroughbred bedding preferences, associated behaviour differences and their implications for equine welfare.

Choice tests are an effective means of assessing the short-term environmental preferences of captive animals. The preferences shown by eight thoroughbred horses (Equus caballus) for three commonly used bedding materials (paper, straw and shavings) were investigated. For each preference test two choices were presented in separate boxes joined by an imbedded corridor. Time spent in each compartment and associated behaviours were recorded. Despite a positional bias, horses clearly showed a preference for straw bedding (42·9 (s.e. 3·6) ) over shavings (35·-2 (s.e. 3·4) %, P < 0·05;, straw (42·0 (s.e. 3·7)% ) over paper (29·3 (s.e. 3·4) %, P < 0·05) and shavings (41·6 (s.e. 4·3) %) over paper (27·7 (s.e. 3·7)% , P < 0·001) based on percentage of observed time spent on the substrate. Straw bedding increased the occurrence of bedding related activities, with more of these activities in choices where straw was available (P < 0·001) and in these choices the activities being preferentially expressed in the straw alternative (P < 0·001). Straw may therefore be preferred as it allows the expression of a wider number of motivationally significant activities.

The use of operant technology to measure behavioral priorities in captive animals.

Addressing the behavioral priorities of captive animals and the development of practical, objective measures of the value of environmental resources is a principal objective of animal welfare science. In theory, consumer demand approaches derivedfrom human microeconomics should provide validmeasures of the value of environmental resources. In practice, however, a number of empirical and theoretical problems have rendered these measures difficult to interpret in studies with animals. A common approach has been to impose a cost on access to resources and to use time with each resource as a measure of consumption to construct demand curves. This can be recorded easily by automatic means, but in a number of studies, it has been found that animals compensate for increased cost of access with longer visit time. Furthermore, direct observation of the test animals’ behavior has shown that resource interaction is more intense once the animals have overcome higher costs. As a consequence, measures based on time with the resource may underestimate resource consumption at higher access costs, and demand curves derived from these measures may not be a true reflection of the value of different resources. An alternative approach to demand curves isreservation price, which is the maximum price individual animals are prepared to pay to gain access to resources. In studies using this approach, farmed mink (Mustela vison) paid higher prices for food and swimming water than for resources such as tunnels, water bowls, pet toys, and empty compartments. This indicates that the mink placed a higher value on food and swimming water than on other resources.

Effects of different forms of exercise on post inhibitory rebound and unwanted behaviour in stabled horses

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY It is unknown if different locomotor activities are equally effective at meeting the stabled horses need for exercise and if they attenuate unwanted behaviour. HYPOTHESIS Alternative forms of exercise influence the intensity of locomotor activities during a period of turn-out (the so-called rebound effect) and the occurrence of unwanted or undesirable activities during standard handling situations. METHOD Twenty-four horses kept in stables were randomly assigned to one of 4 exercise regimes (walker, treadmill, turn-out and riding) for 4 consecutive days. Because these forms of exercise provide additional environmental stimulation, beyond that provided by exercise, each horse served as its own control in 4 corresponding (no exercise) control treatments presented in a balanced order. Unwanted behaviour was tested by taking horses to weighing scales and loading and unloading them onto a 4-horse float by an experienced handler and the rebound effect was tested by releasing them into a large arena for a period of 15 min at the end of the exercise and control treatments. RESULTS Locomotor activities made up a large part of behaviour in the large arena following control treatments and all exercise regimes were sufficient to reduce the intensity of walking (P < 0.05), trotting (P < 0.01) and cantering (P < 0.001) on release into a large arena. Exercise regime reduced the number of bucks (P < 0.01) and rolling (P < 0.05) during rebound tests suggesting that turn-out was having a stronger effect than the other 3 exercise regimes. Exercise regimes significantly reduced the amount of unwanted behaviour and the number of commands given by the handler during weighing (P < 0.05) but had no effect on these behaviours during loading onto a float. CONCLUSION Providing stabled horses with one hour/day of exercise on a walker, treadmill, turn-out or by being ridden are all effective at allowing expression of locomotor activities in stabled horses. POTENTIAL RELEVANCE Providing stabled horses with regular exercise is likely to provide positive effects on horse welfare, training ability and handler safety.