Stereotypic route-tracing in experimentally caged songbirds correlates with general behavioural disinhibition
Repetitive, unvarying and apparently functionless behaviours called stereotypies are common in caged animals, but the mechanisms of cage stereotypy have remained elusive. We found that stereotypies correlate with a sign of altered brain functioning, the general disinhibition of behaviour, found in stereotyping human patients and animals treated with psychostimulants. We investigated route-tracing stereotypy in blue […]
Hand rearing affects emotional responses but not basic cognitive performance in European starlings
Hand rearing is a common procedure in behavioural research on birds. While likely to produce tamer experimental animals, there is a risk that it could induce pathological changes in brain and behaviour similar to those seen in mammals that have experienced maternal separation. We explored the effects of hand rearing on the cognitive and behavioural […]