Keyword: Learning, Training

A Reexamination of the Relationship between Training Practices and Welfare in the Management of Ambassador Animals

S. Martin, G. Stafford, D.S. Miller

Published in 2024

Article proposing a model to improve the welfare of ambassador animals trained in zoos and aquariums. Key concepts include the recognition of choice and control by the animal, use of the most positive and least intrusive interventions possible during training, and a reduction in the use of aversive strategies.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories:Wildlife

Keywords: Animal mediation, Self-medication, Education, Human-animal relationship, Socialization,Working animals, Learning

Go to document

How poultry perceive and interpret their environment: scientific research and application examples

Rachel Degrande, Vitor Hugo Bessa Ferreira, Vanessa Guesdon, Ludovic Calandreau

Published in 2023

Scientific review emphasising that poultry have varied and well-developed senses, that they interact with each other, that they are capable of learning, and that they have  a much wider repertoire of cognitive skills than is often assumed.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories: Poultry

Keywords:Animal adaptation to environment, Animal-based measurement, Learning, Enrichment, Memory, Living environment, Cognitive process

Go to document

Volitional activation of remote place representations with a hippocampal brain-machine interface

Chongxi Lai, Shinsuke Tanaka, Timothy D. Harris, Albert K. Lee

Published in 2023

Scientific article on the development of a brain-machine interface to study rats' abilities to voluntarily navigate and direct objects in a virtual reality arena, solely by activating and sustaining appropriate hippocampal representations of remote locations.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Rodents

Keywords:Animal adaptation to environment, Animal-based measurement, Learning, Consciousness, Brain integration, Living environment, Modeling

Go to document

Environmental enrichment improves cognitive flexibility in rainbow trout in a visual discrimination task: first insights

Valentin Brunet, Thomas Lafond, Aude Kleiber, Léa Lansade, Ludovic Calandreau, Violaine Colson

Published in 2023

Scientific article studying the impact of environmental enrichment on the cognitive abilities of rainbow trout as a model aquaculture species. Using an operant conditioning device, after an acquisition phase in which the fish learned to discriminate between two colors, they all successfully completed four inversion learning tasks, demonstrating the cognitive flexibility of rainbow trout. They all passed the generalization task. Fish raised in an enriched environment performed better in the acquisition phase and in inversion learning.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Fish

Keywords: Cognitive process, Enrichment, Memory,Learning

Go to document

Les animaux, ces inventeurs de génie

Mathilde Tahar

Published in 2023

Article summarizing the scientific evidence to demonstrate the presence of invention and creativity in animals, particularly in play situations. According to the author, play fosters individual adaptability by developing inventive abilities.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories: All animals

Key words:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Learning, Cognitive process, Human-animal relationships

Go to document

Birds of a Feather Video-Flock Together: Design and Evaluation of an Agency-Based Parrot-to-Parrot Video-Calling System for Interspecies Ethical Enrichment.

Rebecca Kleinberger, Jennifer Cunha, Megha M Vemuri, Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas

Published in 2023

Scientific article summarizing current knowledge of birds' powers of perception and action cabilities and presenting the results of an experiment that uses video conferencing as an enrichment tool in parrots.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal Categories:Birds (excluding poultry)

Keywords:Learning, Consciousness, Enrichment, Memory, Human-animal relationships

Go to document

Innovation across 13 ungulate species: problem solvers are less integrated in the social group and less neophobic

Alvaro L. Caicoya, Alina Schaffer, Ruben Holland, Lorenzo von Fersen, Montserrat Colell, Federica Amici

Published in 2023

Scientific paper on the problem-solving abilities of 13 ungulate species. Using a foraging task, it tests whether individual factors (neophobia, social integration, sex, age, status) and socio-ecological factors (dietary range, fission-fusion dynamics, domestication, group size) are predictors of participation and performance in the task.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Ruminants

Keywords:Learning, Brain integration, Cognitive processes

Go to document

New insights into ridden horse behaviour, horse welfare and horse-related safety

Karen L. Luke, Tina McAdie, Bradley P. Smith, Amanda K. Warren-Smith

Published in 2022

A scientific paper examining whether there are links between a ridden horse's behaviour, its welfare level and rider safety adopting an approach based on the concept of the 5 domains of animal welfare, which focuses on the consequences of rearing and training practices on animal welfare. The results support the hypothesis that horses with higher welfare levels exhibit fewer hyper-reactive behaviours and their riders suffer fewer accidents and injuries.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Equines

Keywords:Learning and training, Human-animal relationships, Stress

Go to document

Regular positive reinforcement training increases contact-seeking behavior in horses

Renate Larssen, Lina S.V. Roth

Published in 2022

Scientific paper reporting on the effects of using positive reinforcement for owner-trained horses where previously only negative reinforcement has been used. It concludes that a small but regular addition of positive reinforcement to training can increase the contact-seeking behaviour of horses with humans, but is not sufficient to improve their emotional state or stress levels in the long term.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Equines

Keywords:Learning and training, Human-animal relationships, Stress

Go to document

Horses' attentional characteristics differ according to the type of work

Céline Rochais, Mathilde Stomp, Mélissa Sébilleau, Mathilde Houdebine, Séverine Henry, Martine Hausberger

Published in 2022

Scientific article testing the influence of work type, age, sex and breed of horses on their attentional characteristics. It shows that attentional characteristics are strongly related to the type of work the horses are trained for. Horses from equestrian centres had longer and less fragmented attention spans, the sporting activities of eventing horses were correlated to the fragmentation of attention.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Equines

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Learning, Cognitive processes

Go to document