Applied Animal Behaviour lecture notes FREE

Animal welfare lect notes

WEEK 1:...............................................................................................2

LECTURE 1, INTRODUCTION................................................................. 2

LECTURE 2, ANIMAL WELFARE (I).......................................................... 3

LECTURE 3, ANIMAL WELFARE (II)......................................................... 5

WEEK 2:...............................................................................................6

LECTURE 4, CONSCIOUSNESS............................................................... 6

LECTURE 5, WELFARE ASSESSMENT...................................................... 8

LECTURE 6, CATS & DOGS.................................................................. 10

WEEK 3:.............................................................................................13

LECTURE 7, PIGS (I)........................................................................... 13

LECTURE 8, PIGS (II).......................................................................... 14

LECTURE 9, COWS............................................................................. 14

WEEK 4:.............................................................................................15

LECTURE 10, FISH............................................................................. 15




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,Week 1:

Lecture 1, introduction
Animals have poor welfare because they are no longer living in the
environment that they are naturally adapted to
Their behavioural needs cannot be met and this leads to problems
What is natural?
What is needed for their welfare?
Sometimes natural can be negative (predation)

, Keeping social species isolated can lead to problems, like rabbits and their
inability to dig in addition. Their lifespan also goes down if they are alone

Animal welfare is not ethics!! Welfare = how animals experience things,
ethics is if something is acceptable
Welfare is from the animals perspective
Use behaviour as a way to see their welfare
If behaviour is linked to fitness it has a reward system -> it becomes
important to them

Is it okay to view animals from a human perspective to see if their welfare
is okay? Its complicated. A certain amount makes sense, ie what causes us
pain will cause them pain too (same underlying mechanism in the brain
that observe pain). But we are very different too, ie dogs see very different
than us.

Which behaviour is important: look at mechanism and function
Is limping linked to pain? Painkillers and see if a chicken walks normal
again (less unbalanced). Consider behavioural strategies to help the cause
of painful legs (ie inactivity, fight it with feeding chickens live crickets so
they chase them and move more)

Individual welfare can be different per individual -> do individual based
measurements

For the paper: take less obvious route, remember this is about animal
welfare (examples on brightspace)

Tinbergen 4 Qs:
1. Mechanism/causation
2. Evolution/phylogeny
3. Survival value/function
4. Ontogeny/development

Certain behaviours are hardwired (instincts) that are genetically
programmed
Behaviour is sometimes genetically determined

Innate behaviour is important

Lecture 2, animal welfare (I)
Animal needs are important because they are linked to neurological
reward systems
Nature = ecologists, nurture = behaviouralists
Animals intergrate natural instincts with learned behaviour
Ie pigs learn to put a coin into a box for food rewards, but sniffle
while doing it as if foraging