Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106842
Kris Descovich, Ruan Daros, Andreia de Paula Vieira, Thiago Bernardino, Peta Taylor
{"title":"Animals and society: Striking the right balance through ethology. Preface for the special issue of the 57th congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology","authors":"Kris Descovich, Ruan Daros, Andreia de Paula Vieira, Thiago Bernardino, Peta Taylor","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106842","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106842","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"293 ","pages":"Article 106842"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145690736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106861
Irene Camerlink, Péter Pongrácz
{"title":"What we can learn from Jane Goodall","authors":"Irene Camerlink, Péter Pongrácz","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106861","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106861","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"293 ","pages":"Article 106861"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145690722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106867
Shuang Yang , Xi Lu , Jiaju Liu , Shuangping Yu , Zuwei Yang , Anru Zuo , Ruixin Mo , Dong Zhu , Shilong Liu , Yubao Duan
{"title":"Corrigendum to “Effects of birdwatching tourism on breeding behaviour and reproductive success of hornbills” [Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 292 (2025) 106763]","authors":"Shuang Yang , Xi Lu , Jiaju Liu , Shuangping Yu , Zuwei Yang , Anru Zuo , Ruixin Mo , Dong Zhu , Shilong Liu , Yubao Duan","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106867","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106867","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"293 ","pages":"Article 106867"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145690733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106856
Laize Guedes do Carmo , Matheus Borges de Carvalho , Pedro Vicente Michelotto , Ruan Rolnei Daros
Neuroticism is one of the five personality traits described in the Five-Factor Model and is associated with emotional instability and behavioural rigidity. It reflects an individual’s sensitivity to negative emotions, resulting in repetitive behavioural responses aimed at avoiding novelty and the unknown. Although this trait has been assessed in horses through questionnaires, no behavioural test had been developed to measure it objectively. This study aimed to propose a novel behavioural test to assess neuroticism in horses based on patterns of food-choice repetition. Fifteen adult mixed-breed mares were tested over five consecutive days in a familiar arena. The test comprised two phases: (1) food recognition and (2) assessment of repetitive patterns in food consumption. Five food types (carrot sticks, carrot cubes, chicory, apple semicircles, and triangular apple pieces) were placed in five divisions of a table. In phase 1, mares underwent five consecutive three-minute sessions, each presenting a single food type. In phase 2, all five foods were presented simultaneously in a fixed arrangement, and each mare completed one five-minute session per day for four days. The sequence in which each food item was consumed was recorded manually. A repetition-based "interday score" was calculated for each mare to quantify behavioural consistency across days. Scores ranged from 32 to 138 points, indicating individual variability in food-choice patterns. To evaluate whether the score represented a new personality trait, principal component analyses were conducted using behavioural data from three validated personality tests (open field, novel object, and startle tests). The interday score did not load with any component extracted from these tests, suggesting it captured a distinct behavioural dimension. This new test generated diverse, consistent response patterns among individuals and appears to assess a personality trait related to neuroticism; however further validation against questionnaires or other tests that measure (or intent to) neuroticism are still needed. Nonetheless, the findings offer a novel behavioural approach to better understand equine personality.
{"title":"Can we assess neuroticism in horses? A study on a novel behavioural test","authors":"Laize Guedes do Carmo , Matheus Borges de Carvalho , Pedro Vicente Michelotto , Ruan Rolnei Daros","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106856","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106856","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Neuroticism is one of the five personality traits described in the Five-Factor Model and is associated with emotional instability and behavioural rigidity. It reflects an individual’s sensitivity to negative emotions, resulting in repetitive behavioural responses aimed at avoiding novelty and the unknown. Although this trait has been assessed in horses through questionnaires, no behavioural test had been developed to measure it objectively. This study aimed to propose a novel behavioural test to assess neuroticism in horses based on patterns of food-choice repetition. Fifteen adult mixed-breed mares were tested over five consecutive days in a familiar arena. The test comprised two phases: (1) food recognition and (2) assessment of repetitive patterns in food consumption. Five food types (carrot sticks, carrot cubes, chicory, apple semicircles, and triangular apple pieces) were placed in five divisions of a table. In phase 1, mares underwent five consecutive three-minute sessions, each presenting a single food type. In phase 2, all five foods were presented simultaneously in a fixed arrangement, and each mare completed one five-minute session per day for four days. The sequence in which each food item was consumed was recorded manually. A repetition-based \"interday score\" was calculated for each mare to quantify behavioural consistency across days. Scores ranged from 32 to 138 points, indicating individual variability in food-choice patterns. To evaluate whether the score represented a new personality trait, principal component analyses were conducted using behavioural data from three validated personality tests (open field, novel object, and startle tests). The interday score did not load with any component extracted from these tests, suggesting it captured a distinct behavioural dimension. This new test generated diverse, consistent response patterns among individuals and appears to assess a personality trait related to neuroticism; however further validation against questionnaires or other tests that measure (or intent to) neuroticism are still needed. Nonetheless, the findings offer a novel behavioural approach to better understand equine personality.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"293 ","pages":"Article 106856"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145690734","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-28DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106874
Travis E. Stoakley , Sarah M. Chinn , David A. Keiter , Linda S. Lee , James C. Beasley
The ability to monitor and anticipate reproductive activity is essential to effectively control invasive wildlife species, especially for globally-distributed vertebrates like wild pigs (Sus scrofa) that incur immense management costs each year. While recent studies have made substantial progress in clarifying the temporal dynamics of wild pig reproductive ecology, several aspects of the spatial dynamics of wild pig reproductive ecology warrant additional attention. Specifically, the factors that influence selection of nesting sites (called farrowing sites for wild pigs) are understudied. While previous studies have characterized nest dimensions, composition, and associated plant species, the multi-scale vegetation community composition and environmental predictors of farrowing site selection are relatively uncharacterized. To better understand the spatial component of wild pig farrowing site resource selection, we assessed the fine- and broad-scale land cover and environmental predictors of farrowing sites for 24 mature female wild pigs at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, USA, between May 2016 – February 2020. Wild pigs monitored in our study established farrowing sites in areas with diverse understory vegetation and were always near water. Compared to farrowing sites used in autumn-winter, sites used in spring-summer had greater light intensity but not greater canopy cover. Nests were predominantly located in upland pine stands or hardwood-dominated riparian areas, and selection was generally proportional to the land cover composition of the study area. Distance to water was the only statistically predictive broad-scale land cover covariate of farrowing site selection in our study. Fine-scale vegetation analyses outperformed broad-scale analyses for predicting farrowing site selection, which inherently hinder managers’ ability to use publicly-available satellite imagery to readily identify areas where parturition is most likely to occur. Therefore, knowledge of fine-scale vegetation composition of an area can improve managers’ ability to discover active or recently used farrowing sites—signals of reproductive activity that are essential for managers to monitor during intensive management or eradication programs. Overall, understanding the spatial patterns of reproduction is important for managing and eradicating target invasive species, and the ability to monitor and anticipate where reproduction occurs around peak reproductive periods can guide management efforts.
{"title":"Multi-scale predictors of farrowing site selection of wild pigs (Sus scrofa)","authors":"Travis E. Stoakley , Sarah M. Chinn , David A. Keiter , Linda S. Lee , James C. Beasley","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106874","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106874","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The ability to monitor and anticipate reproductive activity is essential to effectively control invasive wildlife species, especially for globally-distributed vertebrates like wild pigs (<em>Sus scrofa</em>) that incur immense management costs each year. While recent studies have made substantial progress in clarifying the temporal dynamics of wild pig reproductive ecology, several aspects of the spatial dynamics of wild pig reproductive ecology warrant additional attention. Specifically, the factors that influence selection of nesting sites (called farrowing sites for wild pigs) are understudied. While previous studies have characterized nest dimensions, composition, and associated plant species, the multi-scale vegetation community composition and environmental predictors of farrowing site selection are relatively uncharacterized. To better understand the spatial component of wild pig farrowing site resource selection, we assessed the fine- and broad-scale land cover and environmental predictors of farrowing sites for 24 mature female wild pigs at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, USA, between May 2016 – February 2020. Wild pigs monitored in our study established farrowing sites in areas with diverse understory vegetation and were always near water. Compared to farrowing sites used in autumn-winter, sites used in spring-summer had greater light intensity but not greater canopy cover. Nests were predominantly located in upland pine stands or hardwood-dominated riparian areas, and selection was generally proportional to the land cover composition of the study area. Distance to water was the only statistically predictive broad-scale land cover covariate of farrowing site selection in our study. Fine-scale vegetation analyses outperformed broad-scale analyses for predicting farrowing site selection, which inherently hinder managers’ ability to use publicly-available satellite imagery to readily identify areas where parturition is most likely to occur. Therefore, knowledge of fine-scale vegetation composition of an area can improve managers’ ability to discover active or recently used farrowing sites—signals of reproductive activity that are essential for managers to monitor during intensive management or eradication programs. Overall, understanding the spatial patterns of reproduction is important for managing and eradicating target invasive species, and the ability to monitor and anticipate where reproduction occurs around peak reproductive periods can guide management efforts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"294 ","pages":"Article 106874"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145690427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-28DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106875
Francisco Ceacero , Maxime Bruneau , Martina Komárková , Radim Kotrba
Understanding the mechanisms underlying social hierarchy formation in ungulates is crucial for elucidating the dynamics of group living and intraspecific interactions. While absolute cues are used in every study, relative ones are frequently neglected. We investigated the role of absolute and relative morphometric traits as cues for assessing social rank in common elands (Tragelaphus oryx), a gregarious ungulate species with complex fission-fusion social structures. Through detailed observations and image analysis of 17 adult females and 22 males in two captive herds, we examined the relationships between absolute and relative morphometric traits (horn, body, and dewlap size) and social rank. Initial analyses showed that most absolute variables correlate with social rank in females, while just a few relative ones weakly correlated with rank. On the contrary, only dewlap-related variables, both absolute and relative, correlated with rank in males. This result is probably connected to the different functions of horns and dewlap for each gender. After deeper modelling, age emerged as a significant predictor of social rank, with older individuals occupying higher positions within the social hierarchy, being the main determinant of rank in females (no absolute or relative influence of body, horns or dewlap morphometrics), while the relative size of the dewlap was confirmed as a main determinant of rank in males. These results suggest that individuals may rely more on cues related to dewlap size, which may offer more easily discernible signals of dominance compared to absolute morphometric traits such as horn length or body size. Our study provides valuable insights into the factors influencing social hierarchy formation in social ungulates and highlights the importance of considering both absolute and relative morphometric traits in understanding dominance signalling mechanisms.
{"title":"Absolute vs. relative morphometric traits as indicators of social rank in common elands","authors":"Francisco Ceacero , Maxime Bruneau , Martina Komárková , Radim Kotrba","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106875","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106875","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding the mechanisms underlying social hierarchy formation in ungulates is crucial for elucidating the dynamics of group living and intraspecific interactions. While absolute cues are used in every study, relative ones are frequently neglected. We investigated the role of absolute and relative morphometric traits as cues for assessing social rank in common elands (<em>Tragelaphus oryx</em>), a gregarious ungulate species with complex fission-fusion social structures. Through detailed observations and image analysis of 17 adult females and 22 males in two captive herds, we examined the relationships between absolute and relative morphometric traits (horn, body, and dewlap size) and social rank. Initial analyses showed that most absolute variables correlate with social rank in females, while just a few relative ones weakly correlated with rank. On the contrary, only dewlap-related variables, both absolute and relative, correlated with rank in males. This result is probably connected to the different functions of horns and dewlap for each gender. After deeper modelling, age emerged as a significant predictor of social rank, with older individuals occupying higher positions within the social hierarchy, being the main determinant of rank in females (no absolute or relative influence of body, horns or dewlap morphometrics), while the relative size of the dewlap was confirmed as a main determinant of rank in males. These results suggest that individuals may rely more on cues related to dewlap size, which may offer more easily discernible signals of dominance compared to absolute morphometric traits such as horn length or body size. Our study provides valuable insights into the factors influencing social hierarchy formation in social ungulates and highlights the importance of considering both absolute and relative morphometric traits in understanding dominance signalling mechanisms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"294 ","pages":"Article 106875"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145690426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-27DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106872
Renee Denby , Lauren Hopkins , Lauren Little , Grant W. Tempero , Clare Browne , Melissa Collins , Nicholas Ling , Timothy L. Edwards
Dogs have been demonstrated to be capable detectors of some aquatic species. However, taking dogs into the field for aquatic species detection is not always practical. A recently developed system that involves bringing water samples from the field into a laboratory environment to be evaluated by dogs has shown promise for koi carp (Cyprinus rubrofuscus) detection. In the present study, we replicated these methods to evaluate dogs’ ability to detect brown bullhead catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus). In Experiment 1, we evaluated the dogs’ detection thresholds for catfish detection and determined that they can detect the presence of catfish at operationally useful biomass concentrations in dechlorinated municipal water. To be operationally feasible, samples taken from field sites would need to be preserved between collection and evaluation. Therefore, in Experiment 2, we examined the influence of two water preservation methods, refrigeration and freezing, and found no evidence of any deleterious effect of either method on dogs’ catfish-detection performance. In Experiment 3, we evaluated the dogs’ performance when working with water from natural water sources and, therefore, containing other volatile organic compounds. Under these conditions, dogs were capable of accurately classifying samples at low biomass concentrations, similar to their performance in Experiment 1. These findings strengthen the evidence for the utility of this system for monitoring waterbodies for incursions of a variety of invasive aquatic species.
{"title":"Invasive catfish detection with scent detection dogs","authors":"Renee Denby , Lauren Hopkins , Lauren Little , Grant W. Tempero , Clare Browne , Melissa Collins , Nicholas Ling , Timothy L. Edwards","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106872","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106872","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Dogs have been demonstrated to be capable detectors of some aquatic species. However, taking dogs into the field for aquatic species detection is not always practical. A recently developed system that involves bringing water samples from the field into a laboratory environment to be evaluated by dogs has shown promise for koi carp (<em>Cyprinus rubrofuscus</em>) detection. In the present study, we replicated these methods to evaluate dogs’ ability to detect brown bullhead catfish (<em>Ameiurus nebulosus</em>). In Experiment 1, we evaluated the dogs’ detection thresholds for catfish detection and determined that they can detect the presence of catfish at operationally useful biomass concentrations in dechlorinated municipal water. To be operationally feasible, samples taken from field sites would need to be preserved between collection and evaluation. Therefore, in Experiment 2, we examined the influence of two water preservation methods, refrigeration and freezing, and found no evidence of any deleterious effect of either method on dogs’ catfish-detection performance. In Experiment 3, we evaluated the dogs’ performance when working with water from natural water sources and, therefore, containing other volatile organic compounds. Under these conditions, dogs were capable of accurately classifying samples at low biomass concentrations, similar to their performance in Experiment 1. These findings strengthen the evidence for the utility of this system for monitoring waterbodies for incursions of a variety of invasive aquatic species.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"294 ","pages":"Article 106872"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145621646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
<div><div>Activity sensors provide an objective means to track movement and allow for automatic recognition of behavioural patterns. This study validates the use of sensor-based analysis for assessing daily patterns and behavioural differences related to housing system, age, and season at the onset of preparation for licensing of young warmblood stallions. Warmblood stallions (<em>n</em> = 29), aged 2 years (born between March and June), were categorised based on their housing system: indoor group housing (T1-group: <em>n</em> = 9) or individual stables (<em>n</em> = 20). The individually stabled horses were further divided by month at the onset of preparation for licensing (T1-Ind: June (<em>n</em> = 10) vs. T2-Ind: October (<em>n</em> = 10)), resulting in three cohorts of comparable size. Each stallion wore an activity sensor on a collar for 24 coherent hours per week during the first three months of the preparation period (T1: June-August; T2: October-December). Behavioural analysis was conducted using a deep neural network trained to classify distinct individual activities, including eating, resting and active behaviours. The time budgets of these activities per horse were compared between the cohorts. All the horses in the study displayed appropriate time budgets for each behavioural category, spending approximately 50 % of the day eating, followed by 30–38 % resting and 14–18 % being active, which is consistent with typical species patterns. Group-housed stallions presented more active behaviour within the indoor housing system (χ² (4) = 17.1, <em>P</em> < 0.01), likely due to greater space and social interactions. Stallions in group housing also displayed stronger correlations with synchronous eating (χ² (2) = 77.5, <em>P</em> < 0.001), resting (χ² (2) = 68.8, <em>P</em> < 0.001), and active (χ² (2) = 63.8, <em>P</em> < 0.001) behaviours, reflecting improved social cohesion. In contrast, individually stabled horses were more active in the paddock (χ² (4) = 44.6, <em>P</em> < 0.001), and covered greater distances, possibly compensating for reduced movement opportunities and limited social contact in the stable. Stallions trained in summer (T1) expressed more eating (χ² (4) = 25.6, <em>P</em> < 0.001) and less resting (χ² (4) = 28.7, <em>P</em> < 0.001) behaviours compared to winter (T2), likely due to seasonal factors such as daylight duration. In conclusion, housing systems had subtle effects on the expression of activity time budgets. Group housing was associated with greater behavioural synchrony and increased voluntary movement. A shorter daylight duration led to reduced eating and increased resting behaviour. Limitations of this study include the absence of recorded social behaviours, and a fourth cohort of group-housed stallions entering the preparation period in October. Sensor-based activity monitoring has proven to be an effective method for objectively quantifying behavioural time budgets, providing a valuable
{"title":"Sensor-based analysis of behaviour time budgets in young warmblood stallions entering initial preparation for licensing","authors":"Fabienne Eichler , Lara Klitzing , Saskia Strutzke , Franziska Pilger , Laura Kroschel , Christa Thöne-Reineke , Gundula Hoffmann , Katharina Kirsch","doi":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106873","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106873","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Activity sensors provide an objective means to track movement and allow for automatic recognition of behavioural patterns. This study validates the use of sensor-based analysis for assessing daily patterns and behavioural differences related to housing system, age, and season at the onset of preparation for licensing of young warmblood stallions. Warmblood stallions (<em>n</em> = 29), aged 2 years (born between March and June), were categorised based on their housing system: indoor group housing (T1-group: <em>n</em> = 9) or individual stables (<em>n</em> = 20). The individually stabled horses were further divided by month at the onset of preparation for licensing (T1-Ind: June (<em>n</em> = 10) vs. T2-Ind: October (<em>n</em> = 10)), resulting in three cohorts of comparable size. Each stallion wore an activity sensor on a collar for 24 coherent hours per week during the first three months of the preparation period (T1: June-August; T2: October-December). Behavioural analysis was conducted using a deep neural network trained to classify distinct individual activities, including eating, resting and active behaviours. The time budgets of these activities per horse were compared between the cohorts. All the horses in the study displayed appropriate time budgets for each behavioural category, spending approximately 50 % of the day eating, followed by 30–38 % resting and 14–18 % being active, which is consistent with typical species patterns. Group-housed stallions presented more active behaviour within the indoor housing system (χ² (4) = 17.1, <em>P</em> < 0.01), likely due to greater space and social interactions. Stallions in group housing also displayed stronger correlations with synchronous eating (χ² (2) = 77.5, <em>P</em> < 0.001), resting (χ² (2) = 68.8, <em>P</em> < 0.001), and active (χ² (2) = 63.8, <em>P</em> < 0.001) behaviours, reflecting improved social cohesion. In contrast, individually stabled horses were more active in the paddock (χ² (4) = 44.6, <em>P</em> < 0.001), and covered greater distances, possibly compensating for reduced movement opportunities and limited social contact in the stable. Stallions trained in summer (T1) expressed more eating (χ² (4) = 25.6, <em>P</em> < 0.001) and less resting (χ² (4) = 28.7, <em>P</em> < 0.001) behaviours compared to winter (T2), likely due to seasonal factors such as daylight duration. In conclusion, housing systems had subtle effects on the expression of activity time budgets. Group housing was associated with greater behavioural synchrony and increased voluntary movement. A shorter daylight duration led to reduced eating and increased resting behaviour. Limitations of this study include the absence of recorded social behaviours, and a fourth cohort of group-housed stallions entering the preparation period in October. Sensor-based activity monitoring has proven to be an effective method for objectively quantifying behavioural time budgets, providing a valuable","PeriodicalId":8222,"journal":{"name":"Applied Animal Behaviour Science","volume":"294 ","pages":"Article 106873"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145621648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-24DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106871
Ayodele Stephen AKE, Joseph Olusegun AYO
Pack donkeys are kept predominantly in the open field without any shelter in most tropical and subtropical countries. The study aimed to investigate the effects of melatonin administration on the thermoregulatory and behavioural responses in donkeys kept in the open field and subjected to packing (load-carrying) during hot-humid conditions. Eighteen Nubian pack donkeys served as subjects. They were divided randomly into two groups of nine animals each. Group 1 donkeys were administered melatonin orally pre-packing and subjected to packing (P + M), while Group 2 donkeys only carried load without pre-administration of melatonin (P only). Meteorological parameters were recorded pre- and post-packing concurrently with the measurement of rectal temperature (RT), body surface temperature, and respiratory and heart rates. Behavioural activities were recorded post-packing using the animal focal method for 1 h. The values of the meteorological parameters were higher (P < 0.05) post-packing. The RT value obtained pre-packing was significantly (P < 0.05) lower in the P + M donkeys, compared with that recorded in P only donkeys. The frequencies of grooming and walking in P + M donkeys significantly (P < 0.05) reduced compared to the values recorded in donkeys without administration of melatonin. In conclusion, the administration of melatonin pre-packing to donkeys kept in the open field significantly (P < 0.05) reduced the pre-packing RT value, and the duration and frequency of grooming and walking post-packing. Pre-packing administration of melatonin reduced the negative effects of heat stress on the behavioural and thermoregulatory responses of the donkeys during the hot-humid conditions.
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