CONCEPTS IN ANIMAL WELFARE

Behavioral Measures of Animal Welfare 1

Behavioral Measures
5

MODULE
Of Animal Welfare 1

A. Objectives
This module will enable you to
1) Describe the factors that influence animal behaviour
2) Identify how behavioural indicators contribute to our understanding of animal welfare

B. Introduction
1) Behaviour indicates how animals assess their environment
 Choices that the animal makes
 Reaction to a variety of stimuli
2) Behavioural expressions reflect feelings and motivations and indicate animal welfare
 Use behavioural indicators to identify factors that are important to animals

C. What is animal behavior?

1) Observable action(s) of a living organism (Hurnik et al 1995)
2) Some behaviour is automatic
 Reflexes e.g.
– limb withdrawal
– patellar reflex
3) Most behaviour results from a choice made following analysis of external and internal stimuli.
External and internal factors cause an animal to perform a certain behaviour pattern, and
cause the animal to stop performing the behaviour. These factors influence an animal’s
motivation to perform the behaviour.
4) Internal and external stimuli
Examples of internal stimuli
 Experience
 Physiological status e.g., age, pregnancy
 Innate responses due to species & breed
Examples of external stimuli
 Presence of other animals e.g. predator, conspecific
 Availability of food
 Season
5) Role of motivation in animal behaviour
Motivation: the urge (need) to perform a specific behaviour
 Internal neural mechanism assesses incoming stimuli and selects the most appropriate
response (Hurnik et al 1995)
Conflicting stimuli result in conflicting motivation
 Conflict behaviours

D. Behavioural measures in welfare science

The range of methods that have been developed suggests that no single behavioural indicator or
sign provides a definitive measurement of an animal’s welfare. However, in combination, these
methods can give valuable evidence about welfare. These include

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 CONCEPTS IN ANIMAL WELFARE
Behavioral Measures of Animal Welfare 1

1) Behavioural observation
2) Choices and preferences
3) Work that an animal will do to gain a resource
4) Work that an animal will do to escape unpleasant stimuli
5) Deviations from normal behaviour
6) Interactions with humans

1. Behavioural observation
a) Ethogram: list and description of patterns of behaviour
(behavioural repertoire)
b) Time budget: how animals allocate their time to different
behaviours
 Observe time budgets in a natural environment
 Observe time budgets in a restricted environment
 Alter the restricted environment and record behaviour again
 Compare

Example of behavioural observation

Open, outdoor environment
 60 different behaviours in
blue-breasted quail
 Complex range of sexual,
parental and anti-predator
behaviours in domestic hens
Restricted, housed environment
 Broiler chickens showed 11 and 19
behaviours in different studies
 Caged hens showed 18 behaviours

c) Limitations of behavioural observation

 Behavioural observation does not tell us whether particular restrictions are important
to the animal
 Other methods have therefore been developed

2. Choices and preferences

a) Offer the animal a variety of options and allow him/her to choose
b) Measure and record behaviour
 time to enter/choose option (latency),
 time spent at/in different options
 frequency of visits

Example of animal making choices

 Results of a study showed that hens showed more interest in bean bag nests (BB)
than flat floor nests (FF) Duncan & Kite 1989

c) Results of many studies led to the general conclusion that animals will choose
– plenty of space
– comfortable bed
– opportunity to control their environment
– opportunity to interact with others

d) Limitations of choice and preference tests

 Gives the scientist information about an animal’s choices or preferences
 Does not answer the question of whether the animal’s welfare suffers if cannot get
what he/she prefers
 Need to estimate how much the animal values different resources

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 CONCEPTS IN ANIMAL WELFARE
Behavioral Measures of Animal Welfare 1

3. Work that an animal will do to gain a resource

a) The work that an animal will do to gain a resource indicates how strongly the animal is
motivated to have the resource - such as food or a dust bath
b) The amount of work the animal will perform indicates the importance of the reward to the
animal

Example of a study showing the work that an animal will do to gain a resource
 An experiment measured the work that sows were prepared to do (Arey 1992)
– To gain access to straw for nest building
– To gain access to food
The study showed that during early pregnancy, the sows are willing to work hard to
gain access to food but in the last day of pregnancy the sow’s motivation to build a
nest is very strong hence the animal is willing to work hard to gain access to the straw
for nest building.

4. Work that an animal will do to escape unpleasant stimuli

a) Measure how hard an animal will work to avoid a stressful or painful situation
b) These studies should involve short-term stressors only
c) These tests are often minimized or banned due to the ethical concern of possibly causing
suffering to the animals during the study
d) The purpose of such studies is to change a particular routine practice in farm or laboratory
animal husbandry through the use of unpleasant stimuli.

5. Deviations from normal behaviour

a) Animals may develop abnormal behaviour patterns such as tail-biting (pigs), feather-
pecking. It can be difficult to interpret abnormal behaviour. Abnormal patterns of behaviour
are most frequent in restricted environments, and may be the result of frustration. Most
people agree that they indicate poor welfare.
b) The examples of tail-biting and feather-pecking both cause immediate suffering in the
victims, but also suggest that the tail-biters’ and feather-peckers’ welfare is compromised.
These abnormal behaviours may not disappear even after the factors that caused
restriction or frustration have been removed.
c) Stereotypies are another abnormal behaviour. They are
 Repetitive behaviour
 Constant in form
 No obvious purpose in the context
o Indicate past or present frustration due to restrictive environment
 Adaptive? (Mason & Rushen 2006)

Examples of deviations from normal behaviour

Giraffe observation: Results (Veasey et al 1996)

WILD GIRAFFE ZOO GIRAFFE

 Much time spent in locomotion
 No stereotypies observed
 Variation in time budgets at
different sites
 Little time spent on locomotion
 All show stereotypies, especially at
night
 In one zoo, over 60% of nights were
spent performing stereotypic
behaviour

6. Interaction with humans

a) Animals learn by experience
b) Their experience with people enables them to associate humans either with pleasure or
with pain and fear
c) Human-Animal Studies have been explored in animal welfare science

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Behavioral Measures of Animal Welfare 1

d) Use of behavioural indicators in welfare science in comparison with physiological

measures
Advantages Disadvantages
 Easier/less invasive  Interpretation is difficult
 Requires less equipment  Some consider less rigorous
 Can be done away from the
lab

E. Conclusions / Summary
1) Different behavioural measures can tell us a lot about the importance, to animals, of having
the opportunity to perform certain behaviours

Further reading (from Concepts in Animal Welfare Syllabus)

 Arey DS. 1992 Straw and food as reinforcers for prepartal sows. Applied Anim Welfare Sci 33:
217-226
 Duncan IJH & Kite VG. 1989. Nest site selection and nest-building behaviour in domestic fowl.
Animal Behaviour 37: 215-231.
 Hemsworth PH, Barnett JL, Coleman GJ & Hansen C 1989. A study of the relationships
between the attitudinal and behavioural profiles of stockpersons and the level of fear of
humans and reproductive performance of commercial pigs. Applied Anim Behavi Sci, 23: 301-
314
 Hemsworth PH. 2003 Human–animal interactions in livestock production. Appl Anim Behav
Sci 81: 185-198 P. H. Hemsworth
 Hurnik JF, Webster AB & Siegel PB. 1985 Dictionary of Farm Animal Behaviour (2 nd Ed). Iowa
State University Press
 Mason G & Rushen J (Eds). 2006 Stereotypic Animal Behaviour, 2nd edition: Fundamentals
and Applications to Welfare. CABI, Wallingford, UK
 Nicol CJ 1986 Non-exclusive spatial preference in the laying hen. Appl Anim Behav Sci 15:
337-350
 Rushen J 1986. Aversion of sheep to electro-immobilization and restrain. Appl Anim Behav
Sci 15: 315-324
 Stolba A & Wood-Gush DGM 1989. The behaviour of pigs in a semi-natural environment.
Anim Production 48: 419-425
 Veasey JS, Waran NK & Young RJ. 1996 On comparing the behaviour of zoo-housed animals
with wild conspecifics as a welfare indicator using the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardis) as a
model. Anim Welfare 5:139-153

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