Behavioural reactivity of heifer calves in potentially alarming test situations: a multivariate and correlational analysis

Temperament does not affect the overall establishment of mutual preference between the mother and her young in sheep measured in a choice test

“…Temperament testing is generally conducted in adult animals because temperamental traits may change according to maturity and environmental experiences in early life (Van Reenen et al, 2004;Zuckerman, 1991). In humans, a temperament trait is defined as individual differences in behavior that are present early in life and are relatively stable both across various kinds of situations and time (Bates, 1987;Goldsmith et al, 1987).…”

Temperament in preweanling horses: Development of reactions to humans and novelty, and startle responses

“…This is in line with data obtained in other mammalian species. Individual differences in behavior have a poor or moderate consistency early in ontogeny but increase in adults (calves: Jensen et al, 1999;Van Reenen et al, 2004;wolves: McDonald, 1983;dogs: Goddard & Beilharz, 1984;pigs: Janczak, Pedersen, & Bakken, 2001;Ruis et al, 2000), and the same trend has been observed in humans (reviewed by Zuckerman, 1991).…”

“…Concerning stability over time, consistent fear reactions over a period of a few months have been found in poultry (Webster & Hurnik, 1990), pigs (Kooij et al, 2002), calves (Jensen, Munksgaard, Mogensen, & Krohn, 1999;Van Reenen et al, 2004), and dogs (Goddard & Beilharz, 1984). In postweaned horses, fear reactions measured during tests involving novelty or suddenness are constant both in the short term (during 1 month: Visser et al, 2001) and long term (from 8 months to 2.5 years of age: Lansade et al, 2003).…”

“…By contrast, vocalizations and number of squares entered were positively correlated between 10 and 25 weeks. Similarly, Van Reenen et al (2004) repeatedly tested heifer calves at 3, 16, and 29 weeks of age in four behavioral tests: an open-field test, exposure to a stationary human, a novel object test, and a restraint test. Again, consistency of individual differences increased with increasing age (a higher proportion of significant rank correlations between 16 and 29 weeks of age than between 3 and 16, and 3 and 29 weeks).…”

Validation of a digital video tracking system for recording pig locomotor behaviour

“…In particular, this approach of placing an animal in an empty arena containing an unfamiliar object has been hypothesis generating in terms of defining the biology of the exploratory behaviour of rodents (Drai et al, 2001), and automated tracking would be advantageous in future studies along this line in pigs. Also, investigations of how other large animals react to a novel object (King et al, 2003;Van Reenen et al, 2004) could well benefit from the use of an automated tracking system. Administration of APO significantly increased locomotor activity (Fig.…”