Published in 2019
This 12-page leaflet summarises the main principles to follow in order to improve the welfare of horses.
Document Types: Guides to Good Practice
Animal categories: Equines
Keywords: Animal-based measurements, Anxiety, Learning, Training, Housing, Living environment, Fear, Human-animal relationships, Stress
Published in 2015
What is ethology, the ideas behind it and its methods? How does an animal inhabit its space, make use of available food resources and build its social world? What are the cognitive processes at work in this? How can personality explain behaviour? Written by specialists from different fields but in an intentionally accessible and explanatory way with the help of numerous illustrations, this book offers an overview of ethology grounded in analysis of cutting-edge research in ethology.
Document Types: Scientific work
Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Learning, Training, Consciousness, Memory, Living environment, Fear, Cognitive processes, Evolutionary processes, Human-animal relationships
Published in 2007
It is now widely accepted that social welfare is not simply the absence of negative experiences, but rather the presence of positive experiences such as enjoyment. However, scientific research on positive emotions has long been neglected. This paper addresses two main issues: first, it reviews the current state of scientific knowledge supporting the existence of positive emotional states in animals and, second, it suggests possible applications of this knowledge to improve quality of life under animal management conditions. In the first part of the paper, we review recent advances in psychology and neuroscience to provide pragmatic frames based on cognitive processes (such as positive anticipation, contrast and controllability) for use in further investigation of positive emotions in animals. Next, the neurobiological basis of positive emotions is brought to animal welfarer in the identification behavioural and physiological expressions of positive experiences in animals. The monitoring of the autonomic nervous system (via the heart rate and its variability) and the immune system could provide appropriate tools to better assess emotional states in animals, supplementing classic adrenal cortical measurements. In the second part of the paper, useful strategies to enhance positive experiences (such as physical, social and cognitive enrichment or putative genetic selection) are described. The paper then turns to practical applications to assess and promote positive emotions that can help improve an animal's quality of life. Play, affiliation behaviours and certain vocalisations would appear to be the most promising indicators to evaluate positive experiences in laboratory animals and in farm animals kept under commercial production conditions.
Document Types: Scientific review
Keywords: Animal-based measurements, Anxiety, Learning, Training, Pain, Enrichment, Welfare indicators, Brain integration, Fear, Cognitive processes, Stress
Published in 2018
Are animals conscious beings? How do they perceive their own worlds? These questions are being debated in the scientific community for both academic and practical reasons. Accordingly, on 7 July 2012, a group of leading scientists in England headed by Philip Low felt it necessary to publish The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness. This manifesto states that "a convergence of evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuro-anatomical, neurochemical and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states as well as the ability to express intentional behaviour...". It calls for further research to learn more about this capacity in animals. In 2015, INRA carried out a multidisciplinary scientific expertise in order to provide a critical review of the literature on animal consciousness. This work was executed at the request of the European Food Safety Authority (request EFSA-Q-2015-00390, contract no. EFSA/Inra/2015/01).
This study is an overview based on the report from INRA's collective scientific expertise (Le Neindre et al., 2017). It is divided into six chapters:
––the social, ethical and legal context for the expertise (chapter 1)
––consciousness in the animal kingdom: historical perspectives, epistemology and definitions (chap. 2)
––overview of current knowledge on human consciousness, with a discussion of the main current innovative concepts given their usefulness for our understanding of the available data on animals (Chapter 3)
––behavioural and neurobiological components in animals that allow us to talk about more or less elaborate content of consciousness. This chapter constitutes the core of the expertise (chap. 4).
––the positive consequences of taking consciousness into account on our understanding of welfare, suffering and pain (chap. 5)
––the importance of consciousness in the adaptive capacities of animals, especially in their phylogenetic components (Chapter 6)
The book concludes with proposals for future avenues of research resulting from the deliberations of various scientific bodies.
Document Types: Scientific work
Animal categories: Bovines, Canines, Caprines, Equines, Mammals, Monogastrics, Birds (except poultry), Ovines, Fish, Porcines, Primates, Reptiles, Rodents, Ruminants, Poultry
Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Anxiety, Learning, Training, Consciousness, Pain, Societal issues, Enrichment, Brain integration, Metacognition, Cognitive processes, Evolutionary processes, Stress
Published in 2009
While there is growing recognition of applied ethology in France, offering real career opportunities for young graduates, much can still be gained by setting out its different aspects for a broader public. Such is the aim of this book, which describes in as much variety as possible the fields associated with this approach to animal behaviours, focusing on practical measures without neglecting the basic principles that underlie them. With the ongoing devopment of new disciplines and technologies (robotics, virtual reality, etc.), the ethological approach has been able to draw on substantial achievements in the integrative biology sector to innovate and meet societal expectations.
This book is the result of a collective enterprisem with various contributions from recognised scientists and professional ethologists who have been chosen for the complementarity of their skills in the discipline. The contributions are grouped to represent the main fields of activity where ethology is applied: 1) agronomy and animal husbandry, 2) protection of wild flora and fauna, 3) human health and industry, 4) ethical and legal issues related to animal husbandry and experimentation and, finally, 5) human behaviour. Given the diversity of these fields of application, the contribution of each author has been vital and we thank them for their commitment and efficiency. We would also like to thank the members of the French Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour, particularly its then President, for having believed in this work from the outset, for having supported its production and for having placed their trust in us despite a much longer development period than was initially envisaged. Last, we are grateful to Quae publications for having allowed us to turn this project into a reality.
Document Types: Scientific work
Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Animal-based measurements, Anxiety, Learning, Training, Wildlife population dynamics, Experimentation, Welfare indicators, Modelling, Cognitive processes, Stress, Breeding and rearing systems
Published in 2004
The combination of the cognitive sciences and ethology has given rise to cognitive ethology, which takes as its main object "the observation of animals in a more or less natural environment and the aim of understanding the evolution, adaptation, origin and development of a behavioural repertoire specific to each species". The term "cognitive ethology" was originally proposed by Donald Griffin in his book The Question of Animal Awareness, published in 1976. The term tends to replace the term "animal intelligence" which is considered obsolete in English-language publications. The human equivalent is "cognitive psychology".
Document Types: Scientific work
Keywords: Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Learning, Training, Wildlife population dynamics, Experimentation, Cognitive processes
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