Early social experience influences the development of stereotypic behaviour in captive-born striped mice Rhabdomys

Jones, Megan A.; Mason, Georgia; Pillay, Neville

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2009.12.009

Cited by 21 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Striped mice which never displayed SB during Phases 1 or 2 of the experiment were classified as non-stereotypic (NS) for that phase, whereas those animals displaying SB during that time period were classified as stereotypic (S; see Jones et al, 2010aJones et al, ,b, 2011; for a justification of this dichotomous classification method).…”

Section: Sb Incidence and Formmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early environmental enrichment protects captive-born striped mice against the later development of stereotypic behaviour

Jones

Mason

Pillay

2011

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

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a b s t r a c tUnderstanding how birth origin (whether born in the wild or captivity) influences behavioural development is important for fundamental and applied ethology, especially when captive-bred (CB) individuals from wild species are used in research or conservation. CB animals are typically much more prone to stereotypic behaviour (SB) than are wild caught (WC) conspecifics, an effect which in striped mice is accompanied by increased tendencies to form behavioural routines. However, WC mice, if stereotypic, are far more severely affected than CB mice and are also more physiologically stressed and inactive than CB mice, regardless of their stereotypy status. Capturing subjects from the wild to further study these latter effects raises serious practical, ethical and potentially conservation concerns. Here, we therefore tested whether rearing CB striped mice in enriched conditions and then placing them in standard cages could provide a more suitable model for investigating how wild-caught (WC) conspecifics respond to the reduced environmental complexity they experience after capture. Compared with striped mice which were always standard-housed (n = 36), enriched striped mice (n = 24) were four times less likely to develop SB and, similarly to the benefits of being wild born, early environmental enrichment (30-170 days) successfully protected CB striped mice from the emergence of SB after transfer to standard caging (171-240 days). However, unlike WC mice, previously enriched CB striped mice which then became stereotypic did not develop markedly more severe SBs; they showed diverse forms, unlike stereotypic WC mice which exclusively circuit ran; and they were not more inactive once SB levels were controlled for. These findings thus show that early environmental complexity can have lasting suppressive effects on SB, suggesting that early enrichment protocols could indeed provide a practicable, potentially more ethical model for investigating the causal mechanisms underpinning birth origin effects on SB. Furthermore, they add to a corpus of data for this species showing that more naturalistic early experiences, both social and physical, lastingly protect against SB development. These results also highlight how unpredictable and poorly understood early enrichment effects are (since in some species early enrichment exacerbates later SB); and moreover reveal that early environmental complexity is not the sole factor shaping behavioural phenotypes in WC animals, with differential social experience and human contact being other likely causes of developmental divergence.

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Section: Sb Incidence and Formmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early environmental enrichment protects captive-born striped mice against the later development of stereotypic behaviour

Jones

Mason

Pillay

2011

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

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“…Striped mice consistently displaying SB (i.e. the behaviour was observed in at least three of the five observation sessions) were classed as stereotypic, whereas those displaying no SB were classed as nonstereotypic (see Jones et al 2010a for a rationale of this dichotomous scoring method, which was the standard protocol in this laboratory). CB striped mice were similarly observed for SB over two 5-day periods, 1 month after being housed individually in Labotec cages (i.e.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each assessment covered 5 days, and involved one 15 min observation session per day. We defined SB as a repetitive behaviour comprising at least three successive repetitions (see Table 1 for definitions of the various forms of SBs observed; also Jones et al 2010a). Striped mice consistently displaying SB (i.e.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlates of birth origin effects on the development of stereotypic behaviour in striped mice, Rhabdomys

2011

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The behaviour and physiology of wild animals born in zoos, laboratories and breeding centres can differ substantially from that of their wild-caught (WC) conspecifics. For instance, captive-born (CB) animals are typically more prone to developing abnormal repetitive behaviours. In captive striped mice, Rhabdomys, we first confirmed that birth origin predicted the emergence of stereotypic behaviour (SB), with CB mice being most at risk. Second, to investigate correlates of this birth origin effect, we tested WC and CB striped mice in behavioural tasks to quantify fear/anxiety, activity and perseveration, and measured faecal corticosterone to assess physiological stress. WC mice proved more fearful and less active than CB animals, and had higher levels of faecal corticosterone metabolites. These effects, however, were unrelated to SB. WC mice were also less perseverative and more behaviourally flexible than CB animals, traits that covary with SB. Third, a retrospective analysis of laboratory records showed that SB incidence was significantly lower in adult-caught than juvenile-caught striped mice, with juvenile males being the most severely affected by early removal from the wild. In conclusion, our results indicate that adult, but not juvenile WC striped mice are typically protected against SB development in captivity, despite having poorer welfare than their CB conspecifics. They also reveal profound behavioural changes in CB mice, changes suggestive of altered forebrain function, a hypothesis now needing direct testing. Ó

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“…Constantly heightened levels of glucocorticoids puts a higher demand on the systems and typical effects of stress are impaired immune function (Solomon et al, 1968;O'Mahony et al, 2009), deteriorated growth (Satterlee et al, 2000) decreased reproduction (Odihambo Mumma et al, 2006;Shini et al, 2009), altered cognitive functions (see for example Lindqvist et al (2007) behavioural abnormalities (Jones et al, 2010) and anorexia (Shibasaki et al, 1988;Vallès et al, 2000).…”

Section: The Stress Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

Stress hos höns : Effekter av domesticaring och tidig stress på beteende och välfärd

Ericsson¹

2016

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The domestication is the process where animals have adapted to human conditions. A prerequisite for domestication is tame behaviour towards humans and subsequently, selection for other desirable traits took place which led to changes in several behavioural and physiological parameters. The domestication of chickens (Gallus gallus) was initiated around 8000 years ago, and today we see clear phenotypic and genotypic alterations when comparing domestic breeds with the wild ancestor. Our modern domestic production breeds have been selected for, and still undergo heavy selection for high meat and egg yields. Beside obvious morphological changes, studies investigating behavioural differences between the ancestral Red Junglefowl and domestic breeds show, for example, differences in fearfulness, foraging strategies, exploratory behaviour and sociality. The modern production environments are intense and already from hatch chicks are exposed to harsh conditions. From an animal welfare perspective, the production environment contain many stressful aspects. The shift in stressor types between wild and captive conditions have likely contributed to alterations in stress tolerance when comparing domestic breeds to the wild ancestors. Previous research on mammalian models have underlined that early-life stressor exposure can induce negative consequences both immediately and in adulthood, but can also affect the offspring in a transgenerational fashion. The effects observed are for example disturbance of normal brain development, a hyper-reactive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) -axis, decreased immune function and increased risk of developing cognitive dysfunction and abnormal behaviour. In chickens, the long-term effects of stress during the chick phase and during puberty are not well-investigated, and further, conflicting data has been presented on the hatchling HPA-axis reactivity.In this thesis, results from four projects are presented, which all concern stress and welfare at different ages in chickens. The development of the HPA-axis and how chicks respond to early stress both on the short-and long term was investigated. Furthermore, an experiment on the effects of stress exposure a different ages during puberty was conducted, in search of particularly stress-sensitive periods. Two papers address domestication effects on the stress response.In paper I, the results show that the HPA-axis is fully functioning at hatch, resulting in elevated corticosterone levels at exposure to stressful conditions. Breed differences indicate domestication effects on the reactivity and development of the HPA-axis; the Red Junglefowl displayed a lower corticosterone baseline and a lower stress response on day one, compared to a domestic breed, whereas the results were the opposite on day 23. Similar results were seen in paper IV, conducted on adult birds, where the Red Junglefowl had a more pronounced reaction to acute stress but a faster recovery period, both with respect to behaviour and physiology. In commercial hatcheries, chic...

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Early social experience influences the development of stereotypic behaviour in captive-born striped mice Rhabdomys

Cited by 21 publications

References 31 publications

Early environmental enrichment protects captive-born striped mice against the later development of stereotypic behaviour

Early environmental enrichment protects captive-born striped mice against the later development of stereotypic behaviour

Correlates of birth origin effects on the development of stereotypic behaviour in striped mice, Rhabdomys

Stress hos höns : Effekter av domesticaring och tidig stress på beteende och välfärd

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