• Title/Summary/Keyword: Animal Behaviors

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Effects of Individuals and Behaviors on Acoustic Features of Ultrasonic Vocalizations in Rats

  • Jeon, J.H.;Song, J.I.;Jeon, B.S.;Kwag, J.H.;Park, K.H.;Kang, H.S.;Kim, D.H.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.537-542
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    • 2010
  • The goal of this study was to investigate how spectrographic features of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in rats vary among individuals and behaviors. Eighteen pairs of rats were allocated to individual pair cages. Each pair's behaviors and vocalizations were recorded during the 900s a known cage-mate was returning to the cage. The effects of individuals, behaviors, and the interaction between individuals and behaviors ($individuals{\times}behaviors$) were tested on the duration and peak frequencies. There was difference in the duration and peak frequency: i) among individuals (p<0.0001 and p<0.0001, respectively); ii) among behaviors (p = 0.0667 and p<0.0001, respectively); iii) among individuals${\times}$behaviors (p<0.0001 and p<0.0001, respectively). The frequency of ultrasonic vocalizations changed with a frequency ranging from 40 to 71 kHz which were emitted by individuals, whereas the frequency of ultrasonic vocalizations changed with a frequency ranging from 60 to 70 kHz which were emitted by behaviors. The peak frequency of call on 'contact' behavior was lower than that of call on other behaviors, but call duration of call on 'contact' was longer than on other behaviors. Especially, 40 kHz calls were found on 'contact' and 'other' behaviors. We suggest that ultrasonic vocalizations need to be subdivided and the effects of individuals and behaviors must be considered to assess emotional state of rats because these may influence the features of ultrasonic vocalizations.

Behavioral Changes of Laying Hens in an Aviary System (다단식 산란계 사육시설에서의 산란계 행동변화)

  • Cheon, Si-Nae;Lee, Jun-Yeob;Choi, Dong-Yoon;Park, Kyu-Hyun;Song, Jun-Ik;Jeon, Jung-Hwan
    • Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.133-140
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    • 2013
  • The aim of this study was to investigate the behavioral changes of laying hens in an aviary system. In this study, 500 laying hens (Hyline brown) were held in an aviary system in a open-type poultry house. The behaviors of laying hens were recorded using CCD cameras and a digital video recorder. The data were scanned every 2 min to obtain an instantaneous behavioral sample. In the behaviors of laying hens, 'Feeding' and 'Drinking' increased from 3 d placing chick and stabilized after 5 d placing chick. 'Perching' increased from 19:00 to 05:00, while 'Nest visiting' increased from 06:00 to 18:00. 'Aggressive behavior' decreased gradually after 5 d placing chick. These results suggest that the behaviors of laying hens are changed rapidly for about 5 days after placing chick and the behaviors of the laying hens are almost stabilized at 5 d placing chick.

Experiment on the Anomalous Animal Behaviors by Electric Field Effects for Detecting Earthquake Precursors

  • Kyung, Jai-Bok;Yoon, Jang-Keun
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.23 no.1
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    • pp.112-118
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    • 2002
  • The anomalous behaviour of animals prior to a large earthquake has been frequently reported from many places throughout the world since ancient times. This study is to experimentally testify what relations exist between the anomalous animal behavior and electric field effect, which is reported due to the piezo-electric effects in a basement rock before earthquake occurrences. We investigated the electric field effects on behaviors of two kinds of rats and birds. Rats show more sensitive anomalous behavior than birds. Even though the current applied to the experimental birds and rats is just a few ${\mu}$A, they show various abnormal behaviors. The anomalous animal behaviors under the small ground electric field may have some relations to the actual phenomena before great earthquake.

General Behaviors and Perching Behaviors of Laying Hens in Cages with Different Colored Perches

  • Chen, D.H.;Bao, J.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.25 no.5
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    • pp.717-724
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    • 2012
  • Color is one of the perch properties. This study was conducted to investigate the general behaviors and perching behaviors in laying hens under different group size (stocking density), and to understand the perch color (black, white or brown) preference of hens during the night. A total of 390 Hyline Brown laying hens was used, and randomly allocated to three treatments: individual group (G1), group of four hens (G4), and group of eight hens (G8), respectively. There were 30 replicates in each group. The hens in G1, G4 and G8 groups were put into the test cages in which three colored perches were simultaneously provided and allowed for four days of habituation in the new cages. Hens behaviors were recorded using cameras with infrared light sources for the following periods: 8:00 to 10:00; 14:00 to 16:00; 19:00 to 21:00; 23:30 to 0:30 on the fifth day after transferring the birds into the test cages. The behaviors of hens in every time period were collected and analyzed, and hens positions on the test perches during mid-night were recorded. The results showed that, group size (stocking density) had significant effect on most of the general behaviors of laying hens except exploring behavior. There were great differences in most of the general behaviors during different time periods. In the preference test of perch color during night, the hens showed no clear preference for white, black or brown perches. For perching behaviors, perching time and frequency of transferring from one perch to another was higher on black perches than on white or brown perches in individual groups. In G4 groups, the hens spent more time on white perches during daytime and more frequent transferring during night compared with black or brown perches. The frequency of jumping upon and down from white perches was higher in G8 groups. It can be concluded that although the group sizes in the cage significantly affected most of the general behaviors, we found that no preference of perch color was shown by the caged laying hens in the different group sizes tested in this study.

Effect of social order, perch, and dust-bath allocation on behavior in laying hens

  • Wang, Yanan;Zhang, Runxiang;Wang, Lisha;Li, Jianhong;Su, Yingying;Li, Xiang;Bao, Jun
    • Animal Bioscience
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    • v.35 no.2
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    • pp.299-307
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    • 2022
  • Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the effects of different social ranking order (SRO) and the enrichments (perch and dust-bath) allocation (EA) on behavior of laying hens in furnished cages. Methods: Total experimental period was 4 weeks. There were 216 Hy-line brown layers beak-trimmed at 1 d of age and selected randomly at 14 weeks of age from a commercial farm, and randomly divided into 36 cages with 6 hens in each cage. High enrichments (perch and dust-bath) allocation (HEA) and low enrichments (perch and dust-bath) allocation (LEA) were provided. Video observations of behavior were obtained from the focal hens between 14 and 18 weeks of age and perching, dust-bathing and other general behaviors of the hens with different social orders were measured. Results: Perching behavior of high SRO hens (HSR) were significantly higher than that of medium SRO hens (MSR), and that of the MSR were significantly higher than that of low SRO hens (LSR) (p<0.01), except for lying on perch (p>0.05). The hens in the high EA cage (HEAC) showed more lying behavior on perch than those in the low EA cage (LEAC) (p<0.01). The different SRO and EA did not affect dust-bathing behavior except vertical wing-shaking behavior (p<0.05). The LEA did not affect general behaviors (p>0.05), except standing and preening behaviors (p<0.01 and p<0.05), of which the hens in the HEAC showed less standing (p<0.01) and more preening behavior than the hens in the LEAC. Conclusion: The SRO of laying hens has a significant effect on the perching behaviors, but SRO and EA have little effect on dust-bathing and general behaviors.

Development of a foaling alarm system using an accelerometer

  • Youngwook, Jung;Honghee, Chang;Minjung, Yoon
    • Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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    • v.64 no.6
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    • pp.1237-1244
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    • 2022
  • Horse breeders suffer massive economic losses due to dystocia, abortion, and stillbirths. In Thoroughbred mares, breeders often miss the foaling process because approximately 86% of the foaling events occur from 19:00 to 7:00; consequently, breeders cannot assist mares experiencing dystocia. To solve this problem, various foaling alarm systems have been developed. However, there is a need to develop a new system to overcome the shortcomings of the existing devices and improve their accuracy. To this end, the present study aimed to (1) develop a novel foaling alarm system and (2) compare its accuracy with that of the existing FoalertTM system. Specifically, eighteen Thoroughbred mares (11.9 ± 4.0 years old) were included. An accelerometer was used to analyze specific foaling behaviors. Behavioral data were transmitted to a data server every second. Depending on the acceleration value, behaviors were automatically classified by the server as categorized behaviors 1 (behaviors without change in body rotation), 2 (behaviors with sudden change in body rotation, such as rolling over), and 3 (behaviors with long-term change in body rotation, such as lying down laterally). The system was designed to alarm when the duration of categorized behaviors 2 and 3 was 12.9% and that of categorized behavior 3 was 1% during 10 min. The system measured the duration of each categorized behavior every 10 min and transmitted an alarm to the breeders when foaling was detected. To confirm its accuracy, the foaling detection time of the novel system was compared with that of FoalertTM. The novel foaling alarm system and FoalertTM alarmed foaling onset respectively 32.6 ± 17.9 and 8.6 ± 1.0 min prior to foal discharge, and the foaling detection rate of both systems was 94.4%. Therefore, the novel foaling alarm system equipped with an accelerometer can precisely detect and alert foaling onset.

Prepartum Behaviors of Bos taurus coreanae (분만직전 한우의 행동)

  • Kim, Hyeon-Hui;Koo, Ja-Min;Hwang, Jae-Min;Jeon, Jung-Hwan;Chang, Hong-Hee;Lee, Won-Ik;Cheong, Jong-Tae;Lee, Hyo-Jong;Yeon, Seong-Chan
    • Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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    • v.42 no.3
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    • pp.403-410
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    • 2002
  • This study was performed to investigate the general prepartum behavioral ethogram of Bos taurus coreanae (Hanwoo cow). In this study, 4 pregnant cows were placed in a separate area. We recorded the behaviors of the cows using time lapse VCR for 48 hours and analyzed behaviors with the scan point sampling method. We observed maintenance behaviors, social behaviors and ingestion behaviors. During the observation period, the time budgets of behaviors in order of frequency were LD(lying down, 38.2%), ST(standing, 24.7%), EA(eating, 10.7%), WA(walking, 7.2%), LR(lying down rumination, 5.6%), SR(standing rumination, 3.3%), TW(tail wagging, 3.1%) and SG(self grooming, 1.8%). The time budgets of the other behaviors such as PG(pairwise grooming), FC(fly catching) were negligible (<1%).

Classification of behavioral signs of the mares for prediction of the pre-foaling period

  • Jung, Youngwook;Jung, Heejun;Jang, Yongseok;Yoon, Duhak;Yoon, Minjung
    • Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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    • v.36 no.2
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    • pp.99-105
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    • 2021
  • In horse management, the alarm system with sensors in the foaling period enables the breeder can appropriately prepare the time of the parturition. It is important to prevent losses by unpredictable parturition because there are several high risks such as dystocia and the death of foals and mares during foaling. However, unlike analysis in the alarm system that detects specific motions has been widely performed, analysis of classification following specific behavior patterns or number needs to be more organized. Thus, the objective of this study is to classify signs of the specific behaviors of the mares for the prediction of pre-foaling behaviors. Five Thoroughbred mares (9-20 yrs) were randomly selected for observation of the pre-foaling behaviors. The behaviors were monitored for 90 min that was divided into three different periods as 1) from -90 to -60 min, 2) from -60 to -30 min, 3) from -30 min to the time for the discharge of the amniotic fluid, respectively. The behaviors were divided into two different categories as state and frequent behaviors and each specific behavioral pattern for classification was individually described. In the state behaviors, the number of mares in the standing of the foaling group (3.17 ± 0.18b) at period 3 was significantly higher than the control group (1.67 ± 0.46a). In contrast, the number of the mares in the eating of the foaling group (1.17 ± 0.34b) at period 3 was significantly lower than the control group (3.33 ± 0.46a). In the frequent behaviors, the weaving of the foaling group was significantly higher than the control group, and looking at the belly of the foaling group was significantly lower than the control group. In period 2, defecation, weaving, and lowering the head of the foaling group were significantly higher than the control group, respectively. In period 3, sitting down and standing up, pawing, weaving, and lowering the head in the foaling group were also significantly higher than the control group. In conclusion, the behavior is significantly different in foaling periods, and the prediction of foaling may be feasible by the detection of the pre-foaling behaviors in the mares.

Experiment on the Anomalous Animal Behaviors by Electric Field Effects for detecting Earthquake Precursors (지진전조현상 파악을 위한 전기장 효과에 의한 동물 이상 행동 실험)

  • 경재복;윤장근
    • Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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    • 2001.09a
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    • pp.57-64
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    • 2001
  • There are some previous reports that some animals such as rats and birds move in a large group and act abnormally to avoid the large earthquake. This study is to experimentally testify what relations exist between the anomalous animal behavior and electric field effect, which is reported due to the piezoelectric effects in a basement rock before earthquake occurrences. When electric field is applied to the whole bottom of the cage, they show nervous behaviors such as grooming, washing their faces, standing on legs or running around in panic to avoid the electric field. When more strong electric field is applied, they jump with shrieking and mount on the electric line. The rat shows more sensitive anomalous behavior than the bird. Even though the current to the experimental birds and rats is just a few $\mu$A, they react in various ways. The anomalous animal behaviors under the small ground electric field may have some relations to the actual phenomena before great earthquake. This kind of study is quite worthy for the understanding of earthquake precursors.

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Effects of Exogenous Ghrelin on the Behaviors and Performance of Weanling Piglets

  • Wu, Xingli;Tang, Maoyan;Ma, Qiugang;Hu, Xinxu;Ji, Cheng
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.21 no.6
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    • pp.861-867
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    • 2008
  • The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of exogenous ghrelin on the behaviors, weight gain, and feed intakes of weanling piglets. A total of 25 pairs of Duroc$\times$Landrace$\times$Large White piglets weaned at 21 days of age were used in this experiment which finished on day 36. Each pair of healthy piglets from the same litter with similar body weight and of the same gender were selected and randomly arranged to ghrelin or control groups. Thus, there were 50 piglets (ghrelin 25; control 25) kept in 10 pens (ghrelin 5; control 5) and 5 piglets per pen. Initial body weight of the pigs did not differ between the control and ghrelin treatment ($7.43{\pm}0.17kg$; p = 0.81). Experimental pigs were infused with ghrelin ($1{\mu}g/d$ pig) via the marginal ear vein between 0750 and 0800 h at 22, 23, 24 days of age. Control pigs were infused with 0.9% saline. Feed consumption was measured on days 23, 24, 25, 29 and 36. Body weight was measured on days 22, 23, 24, 25, 29 and 36. Behavior data of individual piglets were collected by real-time observation from 0800-1500 h through remote supervisory equipment at 22, 23 and 24 days of age. The results indicated that ghrelin infusion could increase drinking (p<0.05) and lying behaviors (p<0.01) and decrease mounting behaviors (p<0.05). No significant influence of ghrelin was found on average daily weight gain (ADG) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) in this experiment (p>0.05). In conclusion, exogenous ghrelin by the method above and at the dosage of $1{\mu}g/d$ pig could cause a variety of behavioral effects, but not improve performance of weanling piglets.