Agonistic behavior and social hierarchy in female domestic rabbits kept in semi-groups

Bill, Joana; Rauterberg, Sally; Herbrandt, Swetlana; Ligges, Uwe; Kemper, Nicole

doi:10.1016/j.jveb.2020.03.004

Cited by 6 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Mounting between animals of the same sex has been considered an agonistic behaviour 7,15 . No differences were seen between groups neither a relation with the rank order of the animals as reported in the literature 41 . In the control group the animal that attacked the most was also the one that performed more mounting behaviour (78% of the total of the group).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 49%

“…Despite the intense activity observed, specially the rst day, no signi cant injuries occurred in the animals. Some authors found that aggression occurred especially in the early hours of the daytime 27,41 . However, in the present study, a correlation between the number of aggressive interactions and the time of the day was not observed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another important aspect is the size of the group. It is known that rabbits prefers small groups to socialize 36,39,41 . So, it seems that the low density of animals in the pen could has facilitated the socialization of the animals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of Male Rabbit Urine on Aggressiveness and Affiliative Interactions in Group-Housing of Unfamiliar Mature Females

Cepeda¹

2023

Preprint

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Rabbits are one of the most commonly used animals in biomedical research. Despite being social animals they are usually kept individually in cages in the research facilities. One limitation to the group-housing is aggression when mixing strange adult animals. Some studies have shown that male urine is effective in decrease the aggressiveness between female animals. We evaluated the behaviour of two groups of 4 unfamiliar adult female New Zealand White rabbits during 4 days. One group of animals was sprayed with buck urine prior to the formation of the group, the other group serves as control. The animals were tested in a large pen with an enriched environment in order to facilitate social housing. There were no main effects of treatment on the studied behaviours (aggression, social and agonistic behaviour, allogrooming and mounting). In both groups, the frequency of attacks was highest the first day and thereafter decrease considerably by day 4. Regarding social and agonistic behaviours, both increased progressively from day 1 to day 3, and decreased from day 3 to day 4. The food intake and body weight during the study was similar between control and treatment groups. No remarkable lesions were found. The findings indicate that urine had little or no effect at reducing aggression between the animals. Nevertheless, the adaptation of the animals to the groups was easily achieved within a few days. We propose that providing a large space and enriched environment will facilitate the socialization of unknown female adult rabbits.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 49%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of Male Rabbit Urine on Aggressiveness and Affiliative Interactions in Group-Housing of Unfamiliar Mature Females

Cepeda¹

2023

Preprint

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“…Dit is onderzocht door Bill et al (2020) door 16 voedsters in groepen van 3 of 5 dieren (= 2 herhalingen per groep) te houden. De voedsters werden een week voor werpen gemengd en bleven in de groep tot werpen, vervolgens werden ze individueel gehuisvest van werpen tot 11 of 18 dagen na werpen en vervolgens weer in groepen gehuisvest.…”

Section: Tijdstip Van Mengenunclassified

“…2 voedsters werd meer agonistisch gedrag waargenomen. Bill et al (2020) vergeleek groepen van 3 met 5 voedsters in parttime groepshuisvesting. Het aantal agressieve interacties in het eerste uur na mengen was duidelijk hoger in de groepen van 5 dan in groepen van 3 dieren.…”

Section: Groepsgrootteunclassified

Update groepshuisvesting voedsters : Notitie aan LNV

Rommers,

de Greef

2021

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Samenvatting NL In deze notitie wordt een overzicht gegeven van recente ontwikkelingen op het gebied van groepshuisvesting van voedsters. Deze ontwikkelingen zijn gebaseerd op zowel literatuur als praktijk.Groepshuisvesting is mogelijk mits de voedsters rond werpen individueel gehouden worden, zgn. parttime groepshuisvesting. Parttime groepshuisvesting is doenlijk maar niet probleemloos. Naast het optreden van positief sociaal gedrag treedt ook agonistisch gedrag (agressie) op doordat de dieren in een sociale rangorde leven. Dit heeft volop aandacht in literatuur en praktijk. De agressie kan verwondingen veroorzaken, die uiteenlopen van krassen op de huid tot open wonden. De grote lijn van de bevindingen is dat er vrijwel geen systematische effecten gevonden zijn om agonistisch gedrag substantieel te verminderen of dat effecten op vermindering nog onvoldoende duidelijk zijn. Zowel de recente literatuur als praktijkervaringen laten zien dat enkele voedsters ernstige verwondingen oplopen, waarmee het welzijn van de dieren is benadeeld. De afweging tussen de positieve effecten van parttime groepshuisvesting en de optredende nadelen valt buiten het bestek van deze verkenning.Summary UK In this note recent developments of group-housing of rabbit does is reported from literature as well as from practical sources (farms). Group-housing of rabbit does is possible when rabbit does are grouphoused parttime. This implies that does are housed individually around parturition, so called "parttime grouphousing". Parttime group-housing is possible but not without problems. Besides positive social interactions aggressiveness among does occurs. This is related to the social hierarchy that needs to be installed. These agonistic interactions (aggression) can cause injuries, ranging from slight scratches to open wounds. No systematic effects have been found in the recent literature to reduce agonist behaviour or effects on reduction are still insufficiently understood/known. Both literature and practical experiences demonstrate that a few of the rabbit does get severely injured. This impairs their well-being. The balance between the welfare benefits of group housing and the occurring disadvantage cannot be made in this small study. Dit rapport is gratis te downloaden op https://doi.org/10.18174/568213 of op www.wur.nl/livestock-research (onder Wageningen Livestock Research publicaties). Dit werk valt onder een Creative Commons Naamsvermelding-Niet Commercieel 4.0 Internationaal-licentie.

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Social behaviour and personality profiles of breeding does housed part-time in group.

Van Damme,

Ampe,

Delezie

et al. 2023

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

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Agonistic behavior and social hierarchy in female domestic rabbits kept in semi-groups

Cited by 6 publications

References 45 publications

Effect of Male Rabbit Urine on Aggressiveness and Affiliative Interactions in Group-Housing of Unfamiliar Mature Females

Effect of Male Rabbit Urine on Aggressiveness and Affiliative Interactions in Group-Housing of Unfamiliar Mature Females

Update groepshuisvesting voedsters : Notitie aan LNV

Social behaviour and personality profiles of breeding does housed part-time in group.

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