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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 ]
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.
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.
Obsessive-compulsive behavior in animals, often called "stereotypy" or "stereotypical behavior" can be defined as a specific, unnecessary action (or series of actions) repeated more often than would normally be expected. It is unknown whether animals are able to 'obsess' in the same way as humans, and because the motivation for compulsive acts ...
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 ...
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.
It was found that 11.03% of racehorses performed one or more abnormal stereotypical behaviour that lead back to animal welfare and husbandry systems. [10] Wind-sucking occurs in 3.8% of non-racing horses in the US. [9] One study shows that stereotypes in general, including cribbing, are more prevalent in dressage horses compared to several ...