Play behaviour in nonhuman animals and the animal welfare issue

Oliveira, Ana Flora Sarti; Rossi, André Oliveira; Silva, Luana Finocchiaro Romualdo; Lau, Michele Correa Lau; Barreto, Rodrigo Egydio

doi:10.1007/s10164-009-0167-7

Cited by 71 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Given that play occurs only when an animal's primary needs (food, comfort, safety, etc.) have been satisfied, it has been suggested that play may be a sensitive indicator for assessing the welfare of animals (Burghardt 2005;Fagen, 1981;Oliveira, Rossi, Silva, Lau, & Barreto, 2010). A decline in the frequency of play behavior in piglets can be a sign of issues with physical or psychological well-being.…”

Section: Welfare Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nosing Around: Play in Pigs

Horback¹

2014

ABC

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-The predominant method of measuring welfare in swine focuses on overt physical ailments, such as skin lesions, lameness, and body condition. An alternative metric for assessing welfare in swine can be to measure the frequency and duration of positive behavioral states, such as play. Given that play occurs only when an animal's primary needs (food, comfort, safety, etc.) have been satisfied, it has been suggested that play may be a sensitive indicator for assessing the welfare of non-human animals. Play has primarily been described in young piglets and is assessed via the occurrence of specific play markers. These play markers include overt bursts of energy like scamper, or more subtle social behaviors like nose-to-body contact. This review describes four areas of play for swine: locomotor, object, sow-piglet, and, peer play. From sporadic leaping to combative wrestling, play behavior allows for the fine-tuning of reflexive behavior which can enhance physical development, enrich cognitive abilities, and facilitate the maintenance of social bonds.

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Section: Welfare Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nosing Around: Play in Pigs

Horback¹

2014

ABC

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“…Although the properties of play may render its study rather challenging, its use as a potential indicator of good animal welfare is becoming increasingly relevant (Boissy et al, 2007;Fagen, 1981;Held & Spinka, 2011;Lawrence, 1987;Oliveira, Rossi, Silva, Lau, & Barreto, 2010). Indeed, play has been associated with terms such as 'fun' (Bekoff, 2001;Spinka et al, 2001;Vanderschuren, 2010), 'pleasure' (Vanderschuren, 2010) and 'joy' (Panksepp, 2005), which imply the subjective experience of positive emotions (Boissy et al, 2007;Burgdorf & Panksepp, 2006;Fraser & Duncan, 1998).…”

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confidence: 99%

Play in Rats: Association across Contexts and Types, and Analysis of Structure

Melotti¹,

Bailoo²,

Murphy³

et al. 2014

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-Play has been proposed as a promising indicator of positive animal welfare. We aimed to study play in rats across contexts (conspecific/heterospecific) and types (social: pinning, being pinned; solitary: scampering), and we investigated its structure using behavioral sequence analysis. Group-housed (three per cage) adolescent male Lister Hooded rats (n = 21) were subjected to a Play-In-Pairs test: after a 3 hour isolation period, a pair of cagemates was returned to the home cage and both social and solitary play were scored for 20 min. This procedure was repeated for each pair combination across three consecutive days, and individual play scores were calculated. Heterospecific play was measured using a Tickling test: rats were individually tickled by the experimenter through bouts of gentle, rapid finger movements on their underside, and the number of positive 50 kHz frequency modulated vocalizations and experimenter-directed approach behaviors were recorded. Both of the above tests were compared with social play in the home cage. While conspecific play in both the Play-In-Pairs test and home cage were correlated, both seemed to be unrelated to heterospecific play in the Tickling test. During the Play-In-Pairs test, although both solitary and social play types occurred, they were unrelated, and solitary locomotor play of one rat did not predict the subsequent play behavior of its cage mate. Analysis of play structure revealed that social play occurred more often in bouts of repeated behaviors while solitary play sequences did not follow a specific pattern. If play is to be used as an indicator of positive welfare in rats, context, type and structure differences should be taken into account.

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“…Social play in paddocks may be a mere rebound effect (which would also indicate that the usual situation does not satisfy the primary needs), but this would not explain the differences observed between players and nonplayers in terms of welfare. One explanation could be that play may help coping with the poor welfare state (e.g., Oliveira, Rossi, Silva, Lau, & Barreto, 2010) and enable temporary emotional resilience (Spinka et al, 2001). Hausberger et al (2012) suggested that the Carr's "recuperation theory" could make sense here, given the strong relationship with oxidative stress: the most affected horses could use play, when given the chance, to momentarily "escape" from stress, by using "muscular and circular actions to remove toxic substances build up in response to physical and mental work" (Burghardt, 2005, p. 36).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal Welfare: Could Adult Play be a False Friend?

Blois‐Heulin¹,

Rochais²,

Camus³

et al. 2015

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-There is no consensus regarding the functions of play. As play behavior is a characteristic of young stages of development, it has been suggested that the higher prevalence of adult play observed in domestic animals could be the result of their "neotenic retardation." Functional hypotheses have dealt with the long term benefits, such as "rehearsal," "motor training" for future adult competencies or "training for the unexpected." However, there is little consistent experimental evidence favoring a particular hypothesis. The present study aimed to test the functional significance of adult play as a potential reliable indicator of good welfare, a by-product of domestication or a tool for social cohesion. Observations of both a domestic species (the horse) and wild/captive animals (cercopithecids) confirm the literature data that show the greater prevalence of adult play in the domestic/captive situations. This convergence between a domestic and a wild species argue against the idea that adult play may be a mere product of domestication. Moreover, animals living in naturalistic situations had the same low level of adult play as observed in wild animals suggesting that captive/domestic animals do not play only because they are stress free or well fed. Play is not a reliable indicator of welfare: Horses and adult macaques that played the most were also those that exhibited the greatest signals of poor welfare as stereotypic behaviors. Furthermore, adult play was more frequent at times of social disturbances and instability. Adult play is a sign showing that the adult organism needs to evacuate stress.

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Play behaviour in nonhuman animals and the animal welfare issue

Cited by 71 publications

References 60 publications

Nosing Around: Play in Pigs

Nosing Around: Play in Pigs

Play in Rats: Association across Contexts and Types, and Analysis of Structure

Animal Welfare: Could Adult Play be a False Friend?

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