Utilizing vocalizations to gain insight into the affective states of non-human mammals
This review discusses how welfare scientists can examine vocalizations to gain insight into the affective states of individual animals. In recent years, researchers working in professionally managed settings have recognized the value of monitoring the types, rates, and acoustic structures of calls, which may reflect various aspects of welfare. Fortunately, recent technological advances in the […]
Review: Towards an integrated concept of animal welfare
Animal welfare is an important field of study due to animal sentience, yet there is to date no consensus on the definition of animal welfare. There have been four key developments in the field of animal welfare science since its birth: the theoretical and empirical study of affective states, and hence our understanding thereof, has […]
Bottlenose Dolphins Produce Underwater Bubbles Linked to Cognitive Task Engagement but Not Success
Captive mammals respond emotionally toward cognitive challenges, but research has precluded marine mammals. A potential indicator of emotion in toothed cetaceans is a large singular bubble (‘burst’) emitted from the blowhole, previously linked to surprise and excitement. Our study analysed bursts from a published study on dolphin cognitive enrichment. Bursts were only produced by task-engaged […]
Bottlenose dolphins’(Tursiops Truncatus) Visual and Motor Laterality Depending on Emotional Contexts
Hemispheric lateralization is a specialized neural and cognitive processing achieved preferentially by either the left or the right hemisphere of the brain. Among vertebrates, emotions processing seems to be lateralized, but the involvement of each hemisphere is still on debate. Our study investigated visual and motor laterality on five bottlenose dolphins’ (Tursiops truncatus) during spontaneous […]
Given the Cold Shoulder: A Review of the Scientific Literature for Evidence of Reptile Sentience
We searched a selection of the scientific literature to document evidence for, and explorations into reptile sentience. The intention of this review was to highlight; (1) to what extent reptile capability for emotions have been documented in the scientific literature; (2) to discuss the implications this evidence has for the trade in reptiles; and (3) […]
Exploratory Investigation of Infrared Thermography for Measuring Gorilla Emotional Responses to Interactions with Familiar Humans
Interactions between zoo professionals and animals occur regularly and are believed to be enriching for animals. Little empirical information exists on how animals perceive these interactions, and particularly how the interactions affect the emotional states of animals. Infrared thermography (IRT) has shown some promise in the assessment of emotions in a variety of species, but […]
Mechanisms underlying cognitive bias in nonhuman primates
Recent research in nonhuman animals highlights the exciting possibility that performance on cognitive bias tasks might indirectly measure an individual’s subjective, affective state. Subjects first learn to perform a conditional discrimination task with two differentially reinforced responses, and then intermediate, unreinforced stimuli are introduced. Differences in affective state have been related to changes in the […]
Abnormal behavior and the self-regulation of motivational state
Although most abnormal behaviors, including all stereotypies, indicate poor welfare, some that occur in rare situations are functional and do not indicate a negative situation. There is a wide range of abnormal behaviors that occur in conditions where the animal’s needs are not met, and these can be valuable welfare indicators, but these should never […]
Can farm animal welfare be understood without taking into account the issues of emotion and cognition?
Although the concept of welfare makes reference to feelings of individual animals, the exact nature of these feelings and their relationship to emotions and cognitive abilities of the animals under consideration are never detailed. Based on the concepts of stress and coping, an extensive list of indicators of physical health, production, behavior, and physiology has […]