Effect of earth as an additional stimulus on the behaviour of confined piglets.

Groups of 8 piglets were housed in flat-deck cages with slatted floors. Experimental cages were provided with a trough of sterilized earth, and the behaviour of focal individuals was recorded for comparison with controls. This replaced an earlier study, with which some of the results were combined. Records were analysed for frequencies and duration of certain activities, and first order sequence analysis was carried out. Experimental piglets rooted in earth for 4 to 8% of observations and also fed for longer. They spent less time sitting or lying. Aggression was reduced and there was a trend for experimental piglets to chew each other less. These differences suggested conditions were more favourable in experimental pens than control pens. However, there were few differences in first order behavioural transitions. Use of earth was not involved in sequences with activities such as feeding, drinking or lying as expected. It seems likely that in these circumstances earth did not act as a stimulus relevant to behavioural organization, but in some other way, with interest declining over time.

Playful behaviour of piglets.

Domestic piglets living in multi-litter groups with their dams and other pigs in a large, socially and ecologically rich outdoor enclosure were observed, to obtain a quantitative description of the frequencies and sequences of behaviour patterns performed during play. Focal animal sampling was used to collect data on the playful behaviour of 14 male and 21 female piglets from birth to 14 weeks of age. The "play markers" hop, scamper, pivot, toss head, shake object and carry object were used to identify playful behaviour sequences. The variety of different behaviour patterns performed in first order transitions with play markers was highest in the first 6 weeks and declined thereafter with increasing age. Behaviour patterns occurring in transitions with play markers significantly more often than expected included stand, walk, trot, gallop, freeze, shove and circle. The overall frequency of play markers was significantly affected by age, with a peak frequency occurring between 2 and 6 weeks of age. Male and female piglets performed play markers at similar rates. Results are discussed with reference to the welfare of piglets kept in housing systems which limit playful behaviour.

Social relationships in a herd of 11 geldings and two female ponies.

The social behaviour of a small herd of 10 Exmoor geldings, two Exmoor mares and one Highland pony gelding was studied in order to see whether any specific associations existed between ponies and, if so, whether these applied to all or only some of the ponies' main activities of grazing, eating hay and sleeping. Such relationships were found but only in a small number of cases did they apply to all activities. The results are discussed in relation to the individual histories of these ponies and in relation to the welfare of horses.

The development of behaviour patterns and temperament in dairy heifers.

Observations were carried out on a group of twenty autumn born Friesian heifer calves from birth until calving at about 25 months of age. During rearing they experienced several rearing conditions; (I) Calf house, where from 48 hrs of age they were individually penned. (II) Group housed Indoors. At weaning they were housed in pens in groups of 10-20 animals and fed hay or silage ad libitum plus some concentrate food. (III) Grazing out doors (HGI) from spring to autumn in groups of 15-30 animals and moved to fresh pastures at about 2 week intervals. (IV) Housed indoors in large groups of 70-80 animals in a yard with access to covered or indoor cubicles, and fed silage ad lib. During this period they were artificially inseminated. (V) Second grazing period. In the following spring they were kept in large groups for grazing. Focal animal sampling to allow sequence analysis of behaviour was performed and a time base was used to estimate time budgets. In addition the temperament of each animal was assessed by recording its reaction to being touched. The development of behaviour was strongly influenced by changes between rearing conditions but generally stabilized rapidly within a particular husbandry condition. The time spent resting was greater when the animals were in the fields than indoors. Ruminating increased over the first 20 weeks and then stabilized. In the calf house the time spent in investigation increased up to 4-5 weeks and then decreased while the frequency of investigation increased. Grooming generally decreased over the study period. In the calf house calf licking increased but after grouping this decreased and rubbing of the body increased. Social encounters tended to decrease with age. The development of temperament as defined later in the text here appears to be determined at an early age and to be stable thereafter. Sequence analysis showed that behavioural sequences became shorter and less variable in content and that as the animal matured fewer behavioural activities were associated in any sequence and that these showed an increase in their degree of association.

Observations on creche behaviour in suckler calves.

The créche behaviour of 16 Charolais-sired Hereford x Friesian calves and 12 Hereford-sired Friesian x Hereford calves was studied in a hill pasture over a 4 month period from June to September when the calves were 3-6 months old. Before being put onto the hill pasture in early May the calves had been penned indoors, from birth with their dams, in two groups. The number of hours of observation in each month varied from 30-36. Scan sampling and focal animal sampling were carried out. From the observations it was concluded that a creche was a group of calves each of which was lying within 20 m of its nearest neighbour. The distance between nearest neighbours was found to change with age. Big creches tended to be formed in the early morning while créches formed later in the day tended to be smaller in size except in the case of 5 and 6 month-old calves. The calves did not appear tó choose any special place for lying except in bad weather. Analysis showed that calves tended to lie with calves from the same original group and that there was a preference to lie with calves of their own cross. Females were more sociable than males and calves with a Charolais sire were more sociable than those with a Hereford sire.

Genetic analysis of strain differences in pre-laying behaviour in battery cages.

The behaviour of hens of two strains during the 10 min before laying in battery cages was studied. Hens of one strain typically exhibited backward-and-forward pacing before laying. Hens of the other strain did not pace and tended to sit. Individual hens of both strains were consistent in their expression of pacing and sitting before laying. There was genetic variation in the expression of both pacing and sitting before laying, and both traits responded to selection. Crosses between the two lines indicated additive genetic variation in the expression of sitting behaviour and non-additive variation in the expression of pacing behaviour.

Pre-laying behaviour in battery cages.

The pre-laying behaviour of hens from two strains of domestic fowls housed in battery cages was studied. Hens from one strain exhibited stereotyped pacing before laying, whereas hens from the other tended to sit during the pre-laying period. Hens from both strains performed vacuum nest-building behaviour before laying. Implications of these findings in relation to the improvement of animal welfare are discussed.

The identification of behavioural key features and their incorporation into a housing design for pigs.

An ethological approach is presented which aims at meeting the welfare requirements of domestic pigs by satisfying their motivations and behavioural needs. Based on the causation of behaviour, welfare may be defined by motivational balance and behavioural needs by environmental and behavioural key features that are essential for the performance of behavioural sequences. Ethological minimum requirements were determined from observations of adult and juvenile large-white pigs in semi-natural enclosures, in increasingly restricted and in conventional conditions. Obligatory features in the environment which consistently enabled the pigs to perform their frequent or regular sequences of behaviour were the design factors for the enriched pens. Each is composed of a nesting, an activity and a rooting area and includes a corridor connecting 4 neighbouring pens. Such an unit houses 4 familiar sows with their fattening offspring, a boar and replacements. Basic features of social structure of the outdoor reference groups were maintained in such pig families. The social contacts in stable family groups enhance the synchrony of heats and lactational oestrus. Thus 2.3 litters/year may be obtained if sows are well fed before mating. As there is no weaning check, the growers reach bacon weight for market around 155 days of age. The system shows, what basic ethological research may contribute to reach practical housing conditions which meet the main behavioural requirements of a species.

Behaviour of thoroughbred foals during nursing.

Thoroughbred foals were found to nurse in bouts of nursing activity delimited by intervals of non-nursing activity lasting 27 secs or longer. Nursing activity included nosing, sucking and interval behaviour. During the first week after birth, foals nursed, on average, seven times an hour with a mean bout duration of 147 secs but were not successful at sucking during all nursing bouts. Time spent nursing decreased as the foals grew older until before weaning, at 24 weeks of age, the foals were nursing once an hour with a mean bout duration of 74 secs. The dams hindered their foals' nursing activity in several ways during Weeks 2 and 3 post partum and it was suggested that at this time nursing was painful for the dams.

Social rank and priority of access to resources in domestic fowl.

One of the most frequently encountered assertions concerning the concept of social dominance is that high rank confers priority of access to resources. There have been few systematic studies to document the reliability of this relationship. We report a recent study in which the hypothesis of close linkage between social rank and access to resources was tested. Five-bird single-sex flocks of domestic fowl representing four different stocks were observed for (1) determination of rank order among flock members, and (2) the frequency and duration of time each member had control of resources provided such that only a single bird would have access to a resource at any given time. These resources were feed, water, perch, nest box and dust-bathing litter box. The results of this study were: (1) competition among flockmates was manifest only at the feeder, (2) a significant overall relationship between social rank and frequency and duration of feeding was obtained, (3) within individual flocks, the higher ranking birds tended to have higher feeding measures, but in few flocks was the measure of rank congruent to the measure of feeding. In the most extreme case, both male and female flocks of one stock had a five-rank linear dominance hierarchy; in these flocks the 'feeding rank order' consisted of two tiers, with no feeding score differences among the top three socially-ranked birds and none between the two bottom social ranks. A second experiment tested the hypothesis that in flocks of five birds with a stable dominance hierarchy, no differences would appear in the expression of aggressive behavior directed to an introduced stranger (i.e. the 'control animal' hypothesis was tested). The results of this experiment were: in none of the five replicates did the alpha bird contribute the highest proportion of aggressive acts to introduced strangers. Second, third and fourth rankers showed highest scores depending on the flock. In domestic fowl, the alpha bird clearly does not have the 'control animal' role with respect to external sources of disturbance. Statements implying close linkage between social rank established by aggression and various global constructs such as priority of access to resources and defense of the group must be scrutinized with care.

Behavioural effects of hyperstriatal ablation in Gallus domesticus.

Hens with bilateral ablations in the hyperstriatal complex were compared with birds with bilateral ablations in the posterior telencephalon and sham-operated controls with regard to their behaviour in their home pens, exploratory behavior and their responses to (1) a simulated aerial predator, (2) a startling stimulus and (3) an auditory stimulus. Ablations involving the ventral hyperstriatum made the birds less reactive to frightening stimuli while ablations in the posterior telencephalon resulted in the bird "freezing" in the experimental situations.

Agonistic behaviour in domestic hens: the influence of housing method and group size.

The incidence of agonistic behaviour was recorded over 1 year in laying hens of two strains, housed either in battery cages or in deep-litter pens in groups of either three or six birds. Aggressive head-pecking was more frequent in pens than in cages and in groups of six than in groups of three. Threats were more frequent in pens and in groups of six light-hybrids. Other pecking at the plumage was more common in cages in groups of six and in the light-hybrid than in the medium-hybrid strain. Observations showed that hens occupy a considerable area when engaging in threat displays: this suggests that the physical restraint of crowding may play an important part in limiting this behaviour. Two reasons for the reduction of aggressive head pecking in caged birds were suggested: firstly, inhibition of the subordinate hens' behaviour because they were constantly in the sphere of influence of the dominant bird and secondly, because agonistic encounters may be triggered only by the entry of other birds into an individual's 'personal space' and not by continuous proximity.

Coprophagia as seen in thoroughbred foals.

Four Thoroughbred foals were seen to quickly eat part of the faeces deposited by their own dams on some 40 per cent of the mare-defaecating occasions observed between the second and fifth week after birth. They did not do it before or after this period. This behaviour was thought to be a feeding pattern which formed a normal part of the foal's development.

The effects of exogenous oestrogen and progesterone on laying and nesting behaviour in the hen.

1. It has been shown that if oestrogen and progesterone are given to ovariectomised hens nesting behaviour will occur. Thus if these hormones are given to normal hens the excessive pacing found in some hens before laying might be reduced. 2. Experiments showed that oestrogen produced no noticeable effects and progesterone caused a high incidence of delayed oviposition and abnormal behaviour.