Dolphin Welfare Assessment under Professional Care:‘Willingness to Participate’, an Indicator Significantly Associated with Six Potential ‘Alerting Factors’
In dolphinaria, dolphins and their trainers build relationships and bonds due to the nature, closeness and repeatability of their interactions, hence training sessions are deemed appropriate to evaluate dolphin welfare. Qualitative Behavioural Assessments (QBAs) have been used to study human–animal relationships and are included in several animal welfare assessments. We introduce here the first QBA […]
The use of Qualitative Behavioural Assessment in zoo welfare measurement and animal husbandry change
Zoological institutions have come a long way over the past 20 years in their measurement and evaluation of animal behaviour and welfare. Environments that enable the performance of biologically relevant activity patterns, which increase behavioural diversity and ensure appetitive behaviours can be completed in full, are commonplace in zoos globally. The use of species-specific environmental […]
Socialising piglets in lactation positively affects their post-weaning behaviour
Although commercial farrowing sheds keep individual litters separated, previous studies have suggested that housing systems that allow socialisation of piglets pre-weaning can reduce aggression after weaning. This study tested whether pigs socialised with non-litter mates pre-weaning would show less aggression during mixing at weaning (when piglets are taken from their sows and mixed in group […]
Emotions after victory or defeat assessed through qualitative behavioural assessment, skin lesions and blood parameters in pigs
Aggression between pigs causes injuries and production losses and is a long standing animal welfare issue. Although the physiological impact of aggression has been well described, little is known about the emotional experience of aggressive interactions. Our aim was to investigate the emotional expression of winners and losers after a fight and how this relates […]
Application of Free Choice Profiling to assess the emotional state of dogs housed in shelter environments
Dogs housed in shelters may experience poor welfare. To ensure these dogs a good quality of life, welfare assessment tools should be sensitive not only to the animals’ physical health but also to their mental state, including the assessment of positive and negative emotions. In this study, we focused on the assessment of shelter dogs’ […]