Using qualitative behavior assessment to investigate the effect of tourist presence on the welfare in captive tigers (Panthera tigris) in three tourism facilities in Thailand
Numerous facilities around the world offer tourists interactive experiences with captive tigers. Yet, the animal welfare implications of this practice have not been widely studied. This study aimed to investigate whether qualitative behavioral assessment (QBA) could: (i) provide a valid indicator of tiger’s emotional state and (ii) be applied to assess whether unfamiliar human presence […]
Qualitative assessment of social behaviour of dairy cows housed in loose housing systems
This study evaluates the qualitative assessment of dairy cows’ social behaviour on farm with regard to its inter- and intra-observer reliability and its correlation to quantitative ethogram-based assessment. Qualitative behaviour assessment is a method based upon the integration by observers of perceived animal behaviour expression, using descriptors such as ‘calm’, ‘aggressive’, ‘sociable’ or ‘indifferent’. Cows’ […]
The correlation of Qualitative Behavior Assessments with Welfare Quality® protocol outcomes in on-farm welfare assessment of dairy cattle
The effort to develop methods for assessing animal welfare at farm level has grown dramatically since the end of the 1990s, culminating in the protocols developed by the European-wide project Welfare Quality® (WQ). However, these protocols are time consuming and lack transparency in how scores are aggregated into welfare outcomes. The current study investigates the […]