Subject: Cognition

Animaux d’élevage : prendre en compte leurs ressentis

Rachel Degrande, Juliette Cognié, Véronique Deiss, Angélique Favreau-Peigné, Valérie Fillon, Plotine Jardat, Christine Leterrier, Frédéric Lévy, Odile Petit, Freddie-Jeanne Richard

Published in 2024

Article exploring the evolution of the concept of animal welfare and the scientific basis for consideration of animals' cognitive and emotional capacities.

Document types: Technical Paper

Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Ovines, Porcines, Poultry

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Animal-based measurements, Anxiety, Learning, training, Consciousness, Welfare indicators, Memory, Metacognition, Fear, Cognitive processes, Stress, Behavioural disorders

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Key Concepts for Enhancing Zoo Animal Welfare: Coping, Comfort, Choice, Control, Challenge, and Compassion

Rose, P. E., & Lewton, J.

Published in 2024

Synthetic overview exploring the application of welfare theory to zoo animals using key familiar indicators that promote adaptation, autonomy and positive cognitive challenges. A trained human husbandry approach based on compassion is essential to making welfare a core goal in zoos.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Wildlife

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Learning, training, Enrichment, Housing, Human-animal relationships

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Animal affect, welfare and the Bayesian brain

Lecorps B, Weary D.

Published in 2024

Synthesis exploring the Bayesian hypothesis that the brain is a predictive machine that interprets sensory data through expectations based on past experiences that influence affective responses. Applied to animals, this theory could improve our understanding of their affective states and reveal the impact of deficits in an animal's predictive processing on its welfare.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories: All animals

Keywords: Cognitive processes, Welfare indicators,Learning, training

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Review: Confinement, restriction of social contacts and movement in domestic horses

Léa Lansade, Elke Hartmann, Michela Minero, Alice Ruet

Published in 2024

Summary of the social and locomotive needs of horses. Their welfare is affected by inadequate housing conditions, such as isolation in individual stalls. It is recommended that horses be housed in stable groups in enriched environments and that they should have regular social contact, even when housed singly.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories: Equines

Keywords:Adaptation of the environment to the animal , Anxiety, Enrichment, Animal mediation, Housing, Socialization, Stress, Behavioural disorders, Working animals, Welfare indicators

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Apis mellifera welfare: definition and future directions

Formato Giovanni, Giannottu Elena, Roncoroni Cristina, Lorenzi Valentina, Brajon Giovanni

Published in 2024

Synthesis describing the essential role played the Apis mellifera bee in pollination and Adaptation of the animal to the environment and as a biomarker for environmental quality. Although they are often overlooked in terms of welfare, honey bees could be included in the five-domain model, which would recognize their capacity for emotional and the importance of defining and promoting practices to improve their welfare.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories:Insects

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Biodiversity, Consciousness, Pain, Education, Environment, Welfare indicators, Memory

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Towards a task to assess boredom-like states in pigs-Stimulus validation as a basis

Hintze S, Heigl H, Winckler C

Published in 2024

Scientific study to measure pig approach and avoidance responses to stimuli with different valence (positive, ambiguous, negative) in order to distinguish between boredom, depression and apathy. The results show that the valence of the stimuli and the age of the animals influence these responses.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Porcines

Keywords:Adaptation of the animal to the environment, Animal-based measurements, Enrichment, Housing

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Dog-human vocal interactions match dogs' sensory-motor tuning

Eloïse C. Déaux, Théophane Piette, Florence Gaunet, Thierry Legou, Luc Arnal, Anne-Lise Giraud

Published in 2024

Scientific article reporting that dogs' response to human speech is tuned to a slower rhythm than humans. To improve the effectiveness of communication with dogs, humans should, and do, slow their speech rate.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories:Canine

Keywords:Animal-based measurements, Cognitive processes, Human-animal relationships, Vocalisation

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The complex affective and cognitive capacities of rats

Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal

Published in 2024

Article demonstrating that rats are not only able to feel fear, pain and anxiety, but are also capable of empathy. They show prosocial behaviors, helping fellow rats in distress, suggesting that they are capable of imagining the needs of others.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Rodents

Keywords:Learning, training, Consciousness, Memory, Cognitive processes

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Review: Rethinking environmental enrichment as providing opportunities to acquire information

I. Veissier, C. Lesimple, V. Brunet, L. Aubé, R. Botreau

Published in 2024

Scientific overview exploring environmental enrichment, designed to improve the welfare and cognitive abilities of animals in captivity. Enrichment provides animals with the means to acquire information by interacting with their environment, thereby promoting adaptation. This approach suggests that complex and varied environments are more enriching than simply prolonging exposure to stimuli, even if the former are neutral or slightly negative.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories: Bovines, Caprines, Equines, Ovines, Fish, Porcines, Poultry

Keywords:Adaptation of the environment to the animal, Enrichment, Housing, Learning, training, Living environment

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The odour of an unfamiliar stressed or relaxed person affects dogs' responses to a cognitive bias test

Z. Parr-Cortes, C. T. Müller, L. Talas, M. Mendl, C. Guest, N. J. Rooney

Published in 2024

Scientific article confirming that dogs can discriminate between human odors emitted during positive or negative emotions with no other cues. The results also show that olfactory signals of human stress affect dogs' behaviors when approaching a bowl of food placed in an ambiguous location and may affect their learning.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories:Canine

Keywords: Cognitive processes, Consciousness, Memory, Human-animal relationships,Learning, training

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