Recent advances in the analysis of behavioural organization and interpretation as indicators of animal welfare

Asher, Lucy; Collins, Lisa; Ortiz-Pelaez, Angel; Drewe, Julian Ashley; Nicol, CJ; Pfeiffer, Dirk U.

doi:10.1098/rsif.2009.0221

Cited by 83 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 147 publications

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“…This value was then subtracted from 1, yielding the probability that data are sequentially dependent, and logit transformed to make its distribution unbounded. (2) Detrended Fluctuation Analysis: DFA is a fractal method of analyzing selfsimilarity in sequential binary data, recommended for ethological analyses of sequential behaviour [65,66]. DFA yields a single alpha score for each mink's response sequence, which equals 0.50 for random data sequences and increases with sequential dependency.…”

Section: Testing For Recurrent Perseverationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recurrent perseveration correlates with abnormal repetitive locomotion in adult mink but is not reduced by environmental enrichment

Ahloy‐Dallaire

Meagher

Díez-León

et al. 2011

Behavioural Brain Research

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a b s t r a c tWe analysed the relationship between abnormal repetitive behaviour (ARB), the presence/absence of environmental enrichment, and two types of behavioural disinhibition in farmed American mink, Neovison vison. The first type, recurrent perseveration, the inappropriate repetition of already completed responses, was assessed using three indices of excessive response repetition and patterning in a biascorrected serial two-choice guessing task. The second type, disinhibition of prepotent responses to reward cues, a form of impulsivity, was tested in a locomotive detour task adapted from primate reaching tasks: subjects were required to walk around, rather than directly into, a transparent barrier behind which food was visible. In older adult females, recurrent perseveration positively predicted pre-feeding abnormal repetitive locomotion (ARL) in Non-enriched housing. High-ARL subjects also performed repeated (same-choice) responses more rapidly than low-ARL animals, even when statistically controlling for alternated (different-choice) response latency. Mink performed much less ARL following transfer to Enriched housing, but there was no corresponding change in recurrent perseveration. Thus, elevated recurrent perseveration is not sufficient for frequent ARL; and while captive environments do determine ARL frequency, in mink, they do not necessarily do so by modifying levels of perseveration. Disinhibition of prepotent responses to reward cues, meanwhile, did not predict ARL. In a separate sample of differentially housed young adults, neither type of behavioural disinhibition predicted ARL, and again, whether or not housing was enriched did not affect behavioural disinhibition despite affecting ARL. Thus, the relationship between recurrent perseveration and ARB may only develop with age; longitudinal studies are now required for confirmation.

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Section: Testing For Recurrent Perseverationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recurrent perseveration correlates with abnormal repetitive locomotion in adult mink but is not reduced by environmental enrichment

Ahloy‐Dallaire

Meagher

Díez-León

et al. 2011

Behavioural Brain Research

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“…DFA was introduced by Peng et al (1992) to identify long-range dependence in nucleotide sequences and has since become the method of choice for researchers studying fractal dynamics in a diverse array of systems ranging from temperature to heart rate to animal behaviour , Rutherford et al 2004, Király & Jánosi 2005, Asher et al 2009). The scaling exponent calculated via DFA (αDFA) provides a relatively robust estimate of the Hurst exponent, which measures the degree to which time series are long-range dependent and statistically self-similar or self-affine (Taqqu et al 1995, Cannon et al 1997.…”

Section: Diving Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Corticosterone administration leads to a transient alteration of foraging behaviour and complexity in a diving seabird

Cottin¹,

MacIntosh²,

Kato³

et al. 2014

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Hormones link environmental stimuli to the behavioural and/or physiological responses of organisms. The release of corticosterone has major effects on both energy mobilization and its allocation among the various requirements of an individual, especially regarding survival and reproduction. We therefore examined the effects of experimentally elevated baseline corticosterone levels on the foraging behaviour of Adélie penguins Pygoscelis adeliae during chickrearing. We monitored the at-sea behaviour of corticosterone-implanted and control male birds using time-depth recorders, and monitored the effects of corticosterone treatment on their body conditions as well as their chicks' body masses and survival. Bio-logged data were examined via traditional measures of diving behaviour as well as fractal analysis as an index of behavioural complexity. Corticosterone administration caused a transient decrease in both overall foraging effort (i.e. reductions in the duration of at-sea trips, the time spent diving and the number of dives performed) and foraging complexity. In contrast, per-dive performance indices suggested an increase in both efficiency and prey pursuit rates. Ultimately, however, we observed no short-term effects of treatment on adult body condition and chick body mass and survival. We conclude that under higher corticosterone levels, sequences of behaviour may become more structured and periodic, as observed in treated birds. The increased energy allocation to dive-scale behaviours observed in treated birds might then reflect an adjustment to intrinsic constraints allowing reductions in energy expenditure at the trip-scale. This study highlights the utility of using both traditional and fractal analyses to better understand scale-dependent responses of animals to energetic and various other environmental challenges.

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“…Altered complexity signatures may reflect changes toward either greater stereotypy or greater randomness, depending on the nature of the disruption [17,18,26]. Kembro et al [31] for instance showed increased stochasticity in the movement behavior of mosquito larvae exposed to lethal and sub-lethal doses of essential oils.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fractal time series analyses of animal behavior measure the structure of behavior as it occurs through time, which is linked to the concept of behavioral organization [17,19]. Borrowing from the field of complexity science, such studies have adopted the term 'complexity' to refer to the correlation structure of the time series, which behave as nonlinear systems [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such patterns are also known to emerge in spatial and temporal sequences of animal movement, which exhibits self-similarity across a range of measurement scales [2][3][4][5][6][7]. Three approaches have used fractal geometry in the field of animal movement ecology: (1) measuring step length distributions (sensu the Lévy flight foraging hypothesis) [5,[8][9][10][11], (2) spatial fractal dimension estimation [12][13][14][15][16], and (3) fractal time series analysis of behavior sequences [17,18]. These studies highlight how highly irregular patterns of behavior may reflect an optimal strategy to facilitate resource encounters in heterogeneous environments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hydrodynamic handicaps and organizational complexity in the foraging behavior of two free-ranging penguin species

et al. 2015

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Background:Animal movement exhibits self-similarity across a range of both spatial and temporal scales reminiscent of statistical fractals. Stressors are known to induce changes in these statistical patterns of behavior, although the direction and interpretation of such changes are not always clear. We examined whether the imposition of known hydrodynamic disruptors, bio-logging devices and flipper bands, induces changes in the temporal organization (complexity) of foraging sequences in two penguin species, little penguins (Eudyptula minor) and Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae).Results: Detrended fluctuation analysis showed that foraging sequences produced by little penguins carrying larger loggers were more complex, i.e., were more erratic tending toward greater stochasticity, than those carrying smaller loggers. However, logger size did not affect complexity in foraging sequences of Adélie penguins. Logger position was associated only weakly with altered complexity in little penguins, with individuals carrying loggers in the middle of their backs displaying slightly more complex dive sequences than those carrying loggers lower on their backs. Finally, despite their known negative effects on penguin fitness, flipper bands were not associated with dive sequence complexity in little penguins. Conclusions:Despite that externally attached devices can disrupt certain behavioral parameters in diving seabirds, we found mixed evidence in support of the hypothesis that such devices significantly disrupt the time-structured organizational properties of foraging sequences in the two penguin species investigated. However, smaller species carrying larger loggers, and perhaps those positioned higher on their backs, may experience an added element of noise in their behavioral sequences that may indicate a departure from foraging behavior observed under normal, unburdened conditions.

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Recent advances in the analysis of behavioural organization and interpretation as indicators of animal welfare

Cited by 83 publications

References 147 publications

Recurrent perseveration correlates with abnormal repetitive locomotion in adult mink but is not reduced by environmental enrichment

Recurrent perseveration correlates with abnormal repetitive locomotion in adult mink but is not reduced by environmental enrichment

Corticosterone administration leads to a transient alteration of foraging behaviour and complexity in a diving seabird

Hydrodynamic handicaps and organizational complexity in the foraging behavior of two free-ranging penguin species

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