Ethogram

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An ethogram is a catalogue or inventory of behaviours or actions exhibited by an animal used in ethology.

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The behaviours in an ethogram are usually defined to be mutually exclusive and objective, avoiding subjectivity and functional inference as to their possible purpose. [1] [2] [3] [4] For example, a species may use a putative threat display, which in the ethogram is given a descriptive name such as "head forward" or "chest-beating display", and not "head forward threat" or "chest-beating threat". This degree of objectivity is required because what looks like "courtship" might have a completely different function, and in addition, the same motor patterns in different species can have very different functions (e.g. tail wagging in cats and dogs). Objectivity and clarity in the definitions of behaviours also improve inter-observer reliability.

Often, ethograms are hierarchical in presentation. The defined behaviours are recorded under broader categories of behaviour which may allow functional inference such that "head forward" is recorded under "Aggression". In ethograms of social behaviour, the ethogram may also indicate the "Giver" and "Receiver" of activities.

Sometimes, the definition of a behaviour in an ethogram may have arbitrary components. For example, "Stereotyped licking" might be defined as "licking the bars of the cage more than 5 times in 30 seconds". The definition may be arguable, but if it is stated clearly, it fulfils the requirements of scientific repeatability and clarity of reporting and data recording.

Some ethograms are given in pictorial form and not only catalogue the behaviours but indicate the frequency of their occurrence and the probability that one behaviour follows another. This probability can be indicated numerically or by the thickness of an arrow connecting the two behaviours. Sometimes the proportion of time that each behaviour occupies can be represented in a pie chart or bar chart.

Animal welfare science

Ethograms are used extensively in the study of welfare science. Ethograms can be used to detect the occurrence or prevalence of abnormal behaviours (e.g. stereotypies, [5] [6] feather pecking, [7] tail-biting [8] ), normal behaviours (e.g. comfort behaviours), departures from the ethogram of ancestral species [9] and the behaviour of captive animals upon release into a natural environment. [10] [11]

Reactions of animals to human presence

Ethograms have also been applied to research concerning the behavioural response of animals to the presence of humans. For example, it has been used to analyze the reactions of black bears [12] and baboons [13] to humans.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethology</span> Scientific objective study of non-human animal behaviour

Ethology is a branch of zoology that studies the behaviour of non-human animals. It has its scientific roots in the work of Charles Darwin and of American and German ornithologists of the late 19th and early 20th century, including Charles O. Whitman, Oskar Heinroth, and Wallace Craig. The modern discipline of ethology is generally considered to have begun during the 1930s with the work of the Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and the Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch, the three winners of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Ethology combines laboratory and field science, with a strong relation to neuroanatomy, ecology, and evolutionary biology.

Morgan's Canon, also known as Lloyd Morgan's Canon, Morgan's Canon of Interpretation or the principle or law of parsimony, is a fundamental precept of comparative (animal) psychology, coined by 19th-century British psychologist C. Lloyd Morgan. In its developed form it states that:

In no case is an animal activity to be interpreted in terms of higher psychological processes if it can be fairly interpreted in terms of processes which stand lower in the scale of psychological evolution and development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feather-plucking</span> Maladaptive, behavioural disorder commonly seen in captive birds

Feather-plucking, sometimes termed feather-picking, feather damaging behaviour or pterotillomania, is a maladaptive, behavioural disorder commonly seen in captive birds that chew, bite or pluck their own feathers with their beak, resulting in damage to the feathers and occasionally the skin. It is especially common among parrots, with an estimated 10% of captive parrots exhibiting the disorder. The areas of the body that are mainly pecked or plucked are the more accessible regions such as the neck, chest, flank, inner thigh and ventral wing area. Contour and down feathers are generally identified as the main target, although in some cases, tail and flight feathers are affected. Although feather-plucking shares characteristics with feather pecking commonly seen in commercial poultry, the two behaviours are currently considered to be distinct as in the latter, the birds peck at and pull out the feathers of other individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cribbing (horse)</span> Stable vice in horses

Cribbing is a form of stereotypy, otherwise known as wind sucking or crib-biting. Cribbing is considered to be an abnormal, compulsive behavior seen in some horses, and is often labelled a stable vice. The major factors that cause cribbing include stress, stable management, genetic and gastrointestinal irritability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Behavioral enrichment</span>

Behavioral enrichment is an animal husbandry principle that seeks to enhance the quality of captive animal care by identifying and providing the environmental stimuli necessary for optimal psychological and physiological well-being. Enrichment can either be active or passive, depending on whether it requires direct contact between the animal and the enrichment. A variety of enrichment techniques are used to create desired outcomes similar to an animal's individual and species' history. Each of the techniques used is intended to stimulate the animal's senses similarly to how they would be activated in the wild. Provided enrichment may be seen in the form of auditory, olfactory, habitat factors, food, research projects, training, and objects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savaging</span> In ethology, aggressive behaviour displayed by the mother towards the offspring

Savaging is a term used in the study of ethology that refers to aggressive behaviour displayed by the mother towards the offspring. Aggressive behaviour includes being rough with, injuring, biting, attacking, crushing and killing of the offspring. While savaging behaviour has been seen in multiple species, it is predominantly demonstrated in domestic pigs. As the definition of savaging is so broad, research on the prevalence of savaging behaviour varies with reports of little savaging of offspring to savaging of offspring up to the 20th percentile. Prevalence of aggressive, non-fatal savaging is greater in gilts, or females who have not yet previously farrowed, as piglet-focused aggression is more frequent in young animals than sows, adult females who have previously given birth. Occurrence of savaging demonstrated by sows is greater if the sow has previously savaged her offspring either as a gilt or sow. Savaging behaviour usually occurs during the first two days after parturition. Prevalence of savaging is similar among first and second farrowing cycles. Savaging behaviour has a significant impact on both agricultural economy and animal welfare which is why it is currently a subject of interest in the pig industry.

Animal psychopathology is the study of mental or behavioral disorders in non-human animals.

Vacuum activities are innate fixed action patterns (FAPs) of animal behaviour that are performed in the absence of a sign stimulus (releaser) that normally elicit them. This type of abnormal behaviour shows that a key stimulus is not always needed to produce an activity. Vacuum activities often take place when an animal is placed in captivity and is subjected to a lack of stimuli that would normally cause a FAP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dust bathing</span> Animal behavior

Dust bathing is an animal behavior characterized by rolling or moving around in dust, dry earth or sand, with the likely purpose of removing parasites from fur, feathers or skin. Dust bathing is a maintenance behavior performed by a wide range of mammalian and avian species. For some animals, dust baths are necessary to maintain healthy feathers, skin, or fur, similar to bathing in water or wallowing in mud. In some mammals, dust bathing may be a way of transmitting chemical signals to the ground which marks an individual's territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pain in fish</span> Overview about the pain in fish

Fish fulfill several criteria proposed as indicating that non-human animals experience pain. These fulfilled criteria include a suitable nervous system and sensory receptors, opioid receptors and reduced responses to noxious stimuli when given analgesics and local anaesthetics, physiological changes to noxious stimuli, displaying protective motor reactions, exhibiting avoidance learning and making trade-offs between noxious stimulus avoidance and other motivational requirements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stereotypy (non-human)</span> Non-pathological pattern of animal behavior which displays very low variability

In animal behaviour, stereotypy, stereotypic or stereotyped behaviour has several meanings, leading to ambiguity in the scientific literature. A stereotypy is a term for a group of phenotypic behaviours that are repetitive, morphologically identical and which possess no obvious goal or function. These behaviours have been defined as 'abnormal', as they exhibit themselves solely in animals subjected to barren environments, scheduled or restricted feedings, social deprivation and other cases of frustration, but do not arise in 'normal' animals in their natural environments. These behaviours may be maladaptive, involving self-injury or reduced reproductive success, and in laboratory animals can confound behavioural research. Stereotypical behaviours are thought to be caused ultimately by artificial environments that do not allow animals to satisfy their normal behavioural needs. Rather than refer to the behaviour as abnormal, it has been suggested that it be described as "behaviour indicative of an abnormal environment".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abnormal behaviour of birds in captivity</span>

Abnormal behavior of birds in captivity has been found to occur among both domesticated and wild birds. Abnormal behavior can be defined in several ways. Statistically, 'abnormal' is when the occurrence, frequency or intensity of a behaviour varies statistically significantly, either more or less, from the normal value. This means that theoretically, almost any behaviour could become 'abnormal' in an individual. Less formally, 'abnormal' includes any activity judged to be outside the normal behaviour pattern for captive birds of that particular class or age. For example, running rather than flying may be a normal behaviour and regularly observed in one species, however, in another species it might be normal but becomes 'abnormal' if it reaches a high frequency, or in another species it is rarely observed and any incidence is considered 'abnormal'. This article does not include 'one-off' behaviours performed by individual birds that might be considered abnormal for that individual, unless these are performed repeatedly by other individuals in the species and are recognised as part of the ethogram of that species.

Animal welfare science is the scientific study of the welfare of animals as pets, in zoos, laboratories, on farms and in the wild. Although animal welfare has been of great concern for many thousands of years in religion and culture, the investigation of animal welfare using rigorous scientific methods is a relatively recent development. The world's first Professor of Animal Welfare Science, Donald Broom, was appointed by Cambridge University (UK) in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comfort behaviour in animals</span>

Comfort behaviours in animals are activities that help maintain the pelage, feathers, integuement or musculoskeletal system and increase the physical comfort of the animal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social facilitation in animals</span>

Social facilitation in animals is when the performance of a behaviour by an animal increases the probability of other animals also engaging in that behaviour or increasing the intensity of the behaviour. More technically, it is said to occur when the performance of an instinctive pattern of behaviour by an individual acts as a releaser for the same behaviour in others, and so initiates the same line of action in the whole group. It has been phrased as "The energizing of dominant behaviors by the presence of others."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pauleen Bennett</span> Australian scientist

Pauleen Charmayne Bennett is an Australian scientist researching anthrozoology at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia.

Cognitive bias in animals is a pattern of deviation in judgment, whereby inferences about other animals and situations may be affected by irrelevant information or emotional states. It is sometimes said that animals create their own "subjective social reality" from their perception of the input. In humans, for example, an optimistic or pessimistic bias might affect one's answer to the question "Is the glass half empty or half full?"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margret Schleidt</span> German human ethologist (1928–2012)

Margret Else Schleidt was a German human ethologist. She worked at the Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie, which has now become the Max-Planck Institute for Ornithology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Sherwin</span> English veterinary scientist (1962–2017)

Christopher M. Sherwin was an English veterinary scientist and senior research fellow at the University of Bristol Veterinary School in Lower Langford, Somerset. He specialised in applied ethology, the study of the behaviour of animals in the context of their interactions with humans, and of how to balance the animals' needs with the demands placed on them by humans.

References

  1. ↑ Abeelen, J.H.F. (1964). "Mouse mutants studied by means of ethological methods". Genetica . 34: 79–94. doi:10.1007/BF01664181. S2CID   44915853.
  2. ↑ MacNulty, Daniel R.; Mech, L. David; Smith, Douglas W. (2007). "A Proposed Ethogram of Large-Carnivore Predatory Behavior, Exemplified by the Wolf". Journal of Mammalogy . 88 (3): 595–605. doi: 10.1644/06-MAMM-A-119R1.1 .
  3. ↑ Wilkinson, M., Stirton, C. and McConnachie, A. (October 2010). "Behavioural observations of singly-housed grey short-tailed opossums (Monodelphis domestica) in standard and enriched environments". Laboratory Animals . 44 (4): 364–9. doi: 10.1258/la.2010.010040 . PMID   20807718.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ↑ Greenberg, N. "Anolis ethogram". Greenberg Homepage. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville . Retrieved 2011-03-18.
  5. ↑ Mason, Georgia J. (June 1991). "Stereotypies: a critical review". Animal Behaviour. 41 (6): 1015–1037. doi:10.1016/S0003-3472(05)80640-2. hdl: 10214/4622 . S2CID   53187334.
  6. ↑ Anderson, Claes; Arun, Attur Shanmugam; Jensen, Per (2010). "Habituation to environmental enrichment in captive sloth bears--effect on stereotypies". Zoo Biology. 29 (6): 705–14. doi:10.1002/zoo.20301. PMID   20069629.
  7. ↑ Sherwin, CM; Richards, GJ; Nicol, CJ (August 2010). "Comparison of the welfare of layer hens in 4 housing systems in the UK". British Poultry Science. 51 (4): 488–99. doi:10.1080/00071668.2010.502518. PMID   20924842. S2CID   8968010.
  8. ↑ Brunberg, Emma; Wallenbeck, Anna; Keeling, Linda J. (August 2011). "Tail biting in fattening pigs: Associations between frequency of tail biting and other abnormal behaviours". Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 133 (1–2): 18–25. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2011.04.019.
  9. ↑ Dawkins, Marian Stamp (August 1989). "Time budgets in Red Junglefowl as a baseline for the assessment of welfare in domestic fowl". Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 24 (1): 77–80. doi:10.1016/0168-1591(89)90126-3.
  10. ↑ McBride, G.; Parer, I.P.; Foenander, F. (January 1969). "The Social Organization and Behaviour of the Feral Domestic Fowl". Animal Behaviour Monographs. 2: 125–181. doi:10.1016/S0066-1856(69)80003-8.
  11. ↑ Stolba, A.; Wood-Gush, D. G. M. (2 September 2010). "The behaviour of pigs in a semi-natural environment". Animal Production. 48 (2): 419–425. doi:10.1017/S0003356100040411.
  12. ↑ Jordan, Robert H.; Burghardt, Gordon M. (1986-01-12). "Employing an Ethogram to Detect Reactivity of Black Bears (Ursus americanus) to the Presence of Humans". Ethology. 73 (2): 89–115. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.1986.tb01002.x. ISSN   1439-0310.
  13. ↑ Iredale, Steven K.; Nevill, Christian H.; Lutz, Corrine K. (2010). "The influence of observer presence on baboon (Papio spp.) and rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) behavior". Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 122 (1): 53–57. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2009.11.002. PMC   2836517 . PMID   20228948.

A sample ethogram of general behaviour:

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