Pecking at string by individually caged, adult laying hens; color preferences and their stability
Hitherto, relatively few studies have attempted to identify the influential features of devices intended to attract and sustain the interest of captive animals and to enrich their environment. In the first of a series of experiments intended to evaluate the attractive (peck-eliciting) properties of selected classes of stimuli and of variations in their component features, […]
Environmental enrichment for ostrich, Struthio camelus, chicks
Commercially reared ostrich chicks are typically kept in barren, indoor environments. This experiment investigated the effects of environmental enrichment on the pecking behaviour, exploration, food consumption and novelty responses of ostrich chicks aged 10 to 21 days. Four groups of 20 randomly selected ostrich chicks were housed in heated huts at one day of age […]
Behavioural Time-budgets and Beak Related Behaviour in Floor-housed Turkeys
The behavioural time budget of 140 turkey poults housed on litter in groups of 10-11 in small pens was recorded by individual scan sampling from 1-day-old to 12-weeks-old. Over this time period some behaviour (sitting/sleeping) remained relatively constant, some (feeding) declined and remained low, some (standing/walking, drinking) declined and rose again, while some (environmental pecking, […]