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Some abnormal behaviours may be related to environmental conditions (e.g. captive housing) whereas others may be due to medical conditions. The list does not include behaviours in animals that are genetically modified to express abnormal behaviour (e.g. reeler mice). A polar bear performing stereotyped pacing.
In animal behaviour, stereotypy, stereotypic or stereotyped behaviour has several meanings, leading to ambiguity in the scientific literature. [1] A stereotypy is a term for a group of phenotypic behaviours that are repetitive, morphologically identical and which possess no obvious goal or function. [ 2 ]
Animal stereotype may refer to: Stereotypy (non-human), repetitive behaviours of animals; the term has two meanings: repetitive "abnormal" behaviours due to abnormal conditions with no obvious function; repetitive normal behaviours due to physiological or anatomical constraints
These behaviors may be maladaptive, involving self-injury or reduced reproductive success, and in laboratory animals can confound behavioral research. [17] Examples of stereotyped behaviors include pacing, rocking, swimming in circles, excessive sleeping, self-mutilation (including feather picking and excessive grooming), and mouthing cage bars.
There are adaptive stereotypic behaviors such as grooming in cats and preening in birds. Captive parrots commonly perform a range of stereotypies. These behaviors are repeated identically and lack any function or goal. Captive parrots perform striking oral and locomotor stereotypies like pacing on the perch or repetitive play with a certain toy.
Most behaviors which are both fixed action patterns and occur in more complex animals, are usually essential to the animal's fitness, or in which speed (i.e. an absence of learning) is a factor. [6] For instance, the greylag goose's egg-retrieval behavior is so essential to the survival of its chicks that the fitness of the parent bird is ...
These behaviors are associated with stress and lack of stimulation. Animals that exhibit this tend to suffer from zoochosis, as it is manifested in stereotypical behaviors. [3] Many who keep animals in captivity attempt to prevent or decrease stereotypical behavior by introducing stimuli, a process known as environmental enrichment. The goals ...
Ethograms are used extensively in the study of welfare science. Ethograms can be used to detect the occurrence or prevalence of abnormal behaviours (e.g. stereotypies, [5] [6] feather pecking, [7] tail-biting [8]), normal behaviours (e.g. comfort behaviours), departures from the ethogram of ancestral species [9] and the behaviour of captive animals upon release into a natural environment.