Animal Behaviour
Understanding behaviour to meet the needs of animals and improve the human-animal relationship
Understanding animal behaviour and behavioural needs, is crucial to sustainable animal welfare solutions and excellent veterinary care.
Through behaviour, animals cope with and adapt to environmental demands, which is key to welfare. To understand the dynamics between the animals' adaptability, changing environmental demands and early life experiences, we research cognitive and emotional processes through behavioural tests and observations, and determine physiological changes to better identify pain, fear and distress.
Based on our fundamental research we formulate welfare concepts and develop welfare assessment tools using a variety of state-of-the art techniques, including thermal imaging, endocrine analyses, sensors and AI technology.
Through enhancing the scientific knowledge base we provide the tools for veterinarians, animal care professionals and animal owners, necessary for adequate interpretation of behavioural welfare signals.
We established nocturnal activity as an indicator of adaptability of dogs in an animal shelter and after subsequent adoption
Development of behaviour and mental disorders as a fundament for clinical ethology
An estimated 285 million people suffer of anxiety disorders, 265 million people have depressions, and millions suffer of other mental disorders (WHO, 2019). Laboratory-, zoo- and farm animals, but also our companion animals, show behavioural problems that have clear similarities to what we see in humans. To respond to these societal challenges it is important to perform comparative and transdisciplinary research, with a special focus on early life experiences and the human animal relationship.
Understanding how behavioral and mental disorders originate and develop is key to providing practical implications for animals and humans
Animal adaptation – the connection between behaviour, physiology and animal welfare
By studying behaviour in combination with physiological processes, fundamental questions about coping and adaptation can be answered. The use of minimally-invasive techniques such as determining hormones in feathers or saliva, aids to minimize distress in line with the 3Rs. Through public engagement projects, science becomes accessible, and data can be gathered on a larger scale. The knowledge gained supports the development of sustainable and ethical animal husbandry and population management, with respecting the needs of the individual animal.
Every individual animal has its own value, regardless of the context and its value to humans’
Subtle animal behavioural signs as indicators in the human-animal relationship
The social bond between humans and animals is a key driver in both animal welfare and animal welfare issues in cats and dogs. Animal behavioural parameters can indicate how an animal and human fare within such social bonds. Behavioural parameters known as subtle signs can form an early warning for an animal’s suffering through pain and abuse. These subtle signs add to animal welfare instruments already available to veterinarians, but need further studying. We study these subtle signs as to prevent and mitigate suffering of cats and dogs that are kept in close relationships with humans.
Subtle behavioural signs of pain and abuse form early opportunities to mitigate animal suffering
