GABJ最新文献

{"title":"Nigerian Fulani ecotype chickens : Estimation of growth curve parameters","authors":"A. Sanusi, S. Oseni","doi":"10.46325/GABJ.V4I1.701","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46325/GABJ.V4I1.701","url":null,"abstract":"The study modelled growth curves of Nigerian Fulani ecotype chickens (NFEC) under two production systems with four non-linear growth functions with a view to establishing growth descriptors for NFEC. Two hundred (200) day-old chicks of NFEC were obtained from an established population of NFEC at the Teaching and Research Farm, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The chickens were separated randomly to intensive and pastured poultry production systems at 12 weeks of age. Data on body weight were taken weekly over a period of 20 weeks. Four non-linear growth functions including Gompertz, Logistic, Bertalanffy and Richard’s models were fitted using the NLIN procedure of SAS® while the best fit model was selected using the goodness-of-fit tests. For all the models, parameter (A), the asymptotic weight, ranged between 1800g and 2417g for male and 1208g and 1550g for female chickens respectively. Parameter (B), the scaling parameter ranged from 0.77 and 19.79. Parameter K, which is the maturity index, ranged between 0.16 and 3.97 for both sexes. The R2 values ranged between 0.9689 and 0.9987 for all the models fitted. Gompertz and Bertalanffy models emerged as the best fit functions. Growth curve parameters of NFEC in the pastured poultry system were not significantly different from those in the intensive system. The growth curve parameters estimated indicates that NFEC growth performance can be improved through effective breeding strategies and improved management practices.","PeriodicalId":12670,"journal":{"name":"GABJ","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78323558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Heat stress effect assessment on milk yield in dairy herds of the Tunisian northern west area","authors":"Y. Ressaissi, M. Hamouda","doi":"10.46325/gabj.v4i1.182","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46325/gabj.v4i1.182","url":null,"abstract":"Dairy herds are raised under dry climate in Tunisia which make them subject to heat stress which is known to considerably decline their milk yield. This paper aimed to evaluate heat stress impact on the dairy performances of the Tunisian North West cows. We used 4789 test-day recorded between 2008 and 2011 on 585 Holstein cows in their first three parities, calved between 2007 and 2011 and belong to 10 herds from the Tunisian North-West area. Temperature and humidity data were associated to each test-day and Thermal Humidity Indexes (THI) were calculated. First, the effect of temperature and humidity factors were assessed separately, then the effect of their interaction and finally the effect of their THI using three statistical models. For model 2 and 3, all fixed factors were significant (P<0.001) while for model 1 the humidity didn’t show a significant on the milk performances. The highest milk yield was 51 kg and was found to be reached during the lowest daily temperature and the highest humidity; corresponding to the lowest THI index. The lowest milk yield was 1 kg and was found to be recorded during the hottest temperature and the lowest humidity; resulting in the highest THI; which have significantly exceeded the THIThreshold. Our analysis has showed that Tunisian dairy cows in the North West area undergo moderate heat stress during one third of the year and that the average milk yield decline is about 5 kg/day.","PeriodicalId":12670,"journal":{"name":"GABJ","volume":"93 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82847616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The nocturnal behaviour of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in Aalborg Zoo and how changes in the environment affect them","authors":"Tobias Astell Andersen, C. Herskind, Julie Maysfelt, René Worup Rørbæk, Christina Schnoor, C. Pertoldi","doi":"10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.748","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.748","url":null,"abstract":"Elephants’ nocturnal behaviours are an important part of their welfare in captivity. For this reason, this study investigates whether the nocturnal behaviour of three African elephants’ (Loxodonta africana) in Aalborg Zoo is affected when exposed to different conditions and if they are affected differently.  Camera footage was used to log the elephants’ behaviours at night during a control period and during two periods with different impacts, which consisted of six nights respectively. Every night, the elephants were captured on video from 8 pm to 8 am and the behaviours were subsequently logged every second following an ethogram containing seven behaviours. This study was not able to show an effect (p > 0.05) on the elephants’ nocturnal behaviour related to an increase in visitor activity during the Autumn holiday. However, a significant increase in the duration of the sway behaviour was found after the shift from daylight saving time to standard time. This study also found that the elephants show individual norms within the behaviours such as interaction with food and abnormal behaviours. The lack of statistical evidence for changes in nocturnal behaviour related to visitor activity, may be due to other external factors influencing the nocturnal behaviour of the elephants. Swaying behaviour was affected by the shift to standard time of all three elephants. Individual differences in nocturnal behaviours indicate that the three elephants have different animal personalities.","PeriodicalId":12670,"journal":{"name":"GABJ","volume":"63 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81420600","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Use of Ethograms to analyse Shoaling Behaviour of Mackerel (Scomber scombrus) in an Aquarium","authors":"H. Thomsen, T. H. Jensen, Kristina S. Ydesen, N. Madsen","doi":"10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.749","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The aim of this study was to design an ethogram to investigate mackerel (Scomber scomburs) shoaling behaviour in an aquarium. We divided shoaling behaviour into four categories: area of the tank where the shoal was present (position); the morphological shape of the shoal (formation); shoaling movements (movement) and the average distance between the individuals in the shoal (density). The shoal was observed in a non-feeding trial and a feeding trial where the shoal was fed with food pellets additional to the normal feeding schedule. The study was conducted in an aquarium with 4.5 million liters of water at the North Sea Oceanarium, Hirtshals, Denmark. Our results indicate that different patterns in the shoaling behaviour could be identified using an ethogram. The plate, which is a closed epileptically shape, was the most observed formation, while the forward unit, which is the average forward motion of the shoal moving horizontally, was the most observed movement. Light intensity, pH, oxygen level, and temperature showed no variation between the trials and thus does not explain any behavioural differences. The shoal showed no clear long-term reaction to feeding, though the shoal showed a preference for the top area when fed more regularly. Further investigations in shoal behaviour could determine whether these categories in behaviour could monitor stress level in confined shoals. \u0000","PeriodicalId":12670,"journal":{"name":"GABJ","volume":"37 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91553743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Chimpanzees Behavioral Respons To A Shift In Number Of Visitors During Autumn Holiday In Aalborg Zoo","authors":"Mette Pouline Ottosen, Jonatan Willy Kjær, Martin S Andersen, L. A. Bach, S. Pagh","doi":"10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.744","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.744","url":null,"abstract":"This study examin how the number of visitors affects the behavior of four chimpanzees Pan troglodytes in Aalborg Zoo. Overall, continuous focal sampling showed no significant changes in the chimpanzee’s behaviors that could be linked to the number of visitors. However, the youngest individual showed significant more shifts in behavior during holidays than during the control days. Individual differences were found in behavioural interactions, fouraging and stereotypical behavior.","PeriodicalId":12670,"journal":{"name":"GABJ","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80545519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Novel Method of Identifying Behavioral Reaction Norms in Captive Animals","authors":"A. Gottschalk, H. Lyhne, C. Pertoldi, A. C. Linder","doi":"10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.750","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.750","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Behavioral instability has recently been introduced as a new quantitative method for investigating the personality of animals through the use of behavioral reaction norms (Linder et al. 2020). Previous methods used in the field are unable to produce comparable quantitative results and lack a protocol ensuring systematic data sampling (Shyne 2006, Rose et al. 2017, Linder et al. 2020). The methods used in the past have primarily been used to estimate the percentage of time spent on various behaviors (Altmann 1974). These traditional methods are deeply dependent on the ethogram used, since the percentage of time spent on one behavior always will be dependent on the amount of time spent on other behaviors. Hence, reducing the reproducibility of results and making comparisons between studies difficult (Linder et al. 2020). Furthermore, the methods previously used do not account for the predictability of an individual (the probability that a given behavior occurs). The predictability of an individual is an important factor when assessing its personality and the novel approach using behavioral instability takes the predictability of the individual into account when assessing their personality. This is enabled by analyzing the variables: median, variance, asymmetry index and kurtosis of the time spent on all occurrences of an individual’s various behaviors (Linder et al. 2020). The asymmetry index (skewness) is a measure of the asymmetry of a distribution, i.e. how much a distribution is tilted due to a high frequency of extreme values in one direction (Mann 2016). The kurtosis is a measure of the relative distance from the center of the distribution to the tails, i.e. how spread the values are around the center of the distribution (Balanda and MacGillivray 1988). \u0000Linder et al. (2020) have showed the application of behavioral instability in the investigation of behavioral reaction norms in a case study investigating the behavior of two captive polar bears at Aalborg Zoo. Thus, showing how the estimation of the variables: median, variance, asymmetry index and kurtosis can be used for assessing the effectiveness of enrichment manipulation. The results presented in Linder et al. (2020) show an intuitive visual representation of the individuals’ reaction norms where the variables describing behavioral instability are plotted as a response to an environmental stimulus. \u0000Our aim is to demonstrate a novel way of visually representing this type of data as a three-dimensional plot, exemplified with the data collected and presented in Linder et al. (2020). First, the variables of behavioral instability were plotted simultaneously for different behaviors demonstrating the effect of the environmental stimuli and secondly, three different behaviors were plotted against each other showing the individuals’ responses to the environmental stimuli for each of the variables, respectively. This novel way of illustrating an individual’s reaction norms, enables the immedia","PeriodicalId":12670,"journal":{"name":"GABJ","volume":"157 2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83218837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nocturnal Behaviour of Three Zoo Elephants (Loxodonta Africana)","authors":"S. Bertelsen, Amalie Slot Sørensen, S. Pagh, C. Pertoldi, T. H. Jensen","doi":"10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.747","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.747","url":null,"abstract":"Few studies have investigated the behaviour of zoo elephants and how their personality is expressed when exposed to different stimuli e.g. a higher number of visitors. Observing the nocturnal behaviour is especially important, because it reveals information about the welfare of the elephants when they are not normally observed. The nocturnal behaviour of three female African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in Aalborg Zoo, Denmark, was studied to create activity budgets and to evaluate if 1) a period with a 4.8 times increase in visitors affected the nocturnal behaviour; and 2) the three elephants exhibited differences in personality. Behavioural data were collected for six nights between 20:00-06:00, and all-occurrence sampling was used to record all types of behaviour. The average of the three elephants showed that the most common behaviours observed during the night was feeding (43±6%) followed by lying (28±5%) and inactive behaviour (16±5%). The elephants laid down an average of 2.4-3.1 hours per night starting at 20:00, and they never laid down before 22:00. No clear pattern of behavioural changes of the elephants was found when there was an increased number of visitors in the zoo. When comparing the intervals of time, the individuals spent on a certain behaviour, and thereby comparing the individuals, several significant differences were found between the medians and interquartile range (IQR). Significant differences were also found in the slopes of the medians, IQR, skewness, and kurtosis for the distribution of the time intervals of the behaviours between the period with lower number of visitors and the period with a higher number of visitors. In an overall perspective, the results indicated that the elephants displayed distinct personalities.","PeriodicalId":12670,"journal":{"name":"GABJ","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82183012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessment of Abnormal Behaviour and the Effect of Enrichment on Captive Chimpanzees in Aalborg Zoo","authors":"Anne-Marie Olsen, H. Kristensen, Kasper Iversen, Nicklas Halby Pedersen, C. Pertoldi, A. Alstrup, T. H. Jensen, S. Pagh","doi":"10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.746","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.746","url":null,"abstract":"Studies have suggested that chimpanzees and other primates in captivity tend to develop abnormal behaviours if they are housed without proper enrichment. The purpose of this study was to get a better understanding of the behaviour of chimpanzees in captivity in Aalborg Zoo, Denmark. This was done by examining whether the individuals displayed abnormal behaviour and whether the enrichment provided would affect the display of abnormal behaviour and other examined behaviours. Furthermore, it was assessed whether the age of the chimpanzee would affect the amount of time spent on enrichment. The assessed behaviours were abnormal, passive, play, climbing, walking and/or running, foraging, food and water ingestion, grooming another, receiving grooming, mutual grooming, and self-grooming, while enrichment included a mirror, televisions, toys, and balls. The chimpanzees were recorded for 20 hours over the course of 5 days in the control week, and 20 hours over the course of 5 days in the enrichment week in autumn 2019. The results showed that the enrichment provided did not lead to any significant change in the behaviours observed in the four chimpanzees. The results also showed that all chimpanzees displayed abnormal behaviour, but also that none of the observed chimpanzees interacted significantly more with the enrichment, based on age. It could be concluded that none of the four different types of enrichment had any significant effect on the observed behaviours. The study shows that it is important to evaluate the effects of new enrichments.","PeriodicalId":12670,"journal":{"name":"GABJ","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89764971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Natural hatching of the world's largest bird \"Struthio camelus\" at the hunting reserve of Tlemcen – Algeria","authors":"Rafiq Rahmouni, Louiza Derouiche","doi":"10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.751","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.751","url":null,"abstract":"The ostrich, Struthio camelus, is an animal that lived in the wild in Algeria, but does not anymore. The hunting Reserve of Tlemcen (RCT) adopted some specimens of this bird in 2007. Since the introduction of this bird in the reserve until the year 2011, no spawning has been reported. The present work focuses on a couple of ostriches; the male is five years old and the female is four years old. All the conditions favorable for their reproduction were fully satisfied. In addition, an adequate arrangement and a diet adapted to the specifics of their digestive system were prepared for them. Consequently, several egg layings occurred starting from April 12, 2012. All the eggs were collected daily and then directed towards artificial brooding. Unfortunately, this operation did not give any positive results. Following this brooding failure, it was decided to opt for natural brooding which proved to be the right one since the female had laid eight eggs, which she incubated and gave birth, to five ostriches after hatching. The newborns exhibited good acclimatization to their new environment; these birds became breeders in 2016. This experience indicated that this type of breeding can succeed in Algeria and can have a major economic impact, on the one hand, and on the other hand, a possibility of reintroducing this species that has disappeared from our wild fauna.","PeriodicalId":12670,"journal":{"name":"GABJ","volume":"85 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85866788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A New Concept “Behavioural Instability” Provides Measuring Tools and a Deeper Understanding of Animal Behaviour and Personality","authors":"C. Pertoldi, A. C. Linder, A. Gottschalk, H. Lyhne, T. H. Jensen, S. Pagh","doi":"10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.752","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46325/GABJ.V0I0.752","url":null,"abstract":"This special issue aims to provide a series of studies, which investigate captive animals with the main scope illustrating how quantitative techniques can be used to investigate the complexity of animal behaviour. These quantitative techniques measuring “behavioural instability” allow robust conclusions including the personality of the animals studied. Traditional behavioural studies might miss the quantitatively evaluation of personality and observations which could decrease the reproducibility of the results. In worst case it can lead to the misinterpretation that behavioural changes are random processes, a bias that can occur due to the unpredictability of animal behaviour i.e. behavioural instability. Behavioural instability is subsequently, a behavioural component that should always be incorporated in behavioural studies. Most important, the use of a standardised statistical pipeline will allow the comparisons of different studies. \u0000Personality tests in humans are widely used to diagnose psychological problems as well as to screen candidates for different employments. These tests indicating that humans have distinguishable personalities, personalities that make individuals more or less capable to cope with life challenges and tasks. Although it is commonly accepted that e.g. mammals and birds have personalities it is challenging to find data based convincing methods to show differences in animal personalities. Animal personalities are indicated by consistent variations in an individual’s behavioural tendencies over time. Personality traits such as aggression, boldness, fearfulness, cooperativeness, and explorative tendencies are used to distinguish between different personality types in a population. Differences in animal personality are conceivably linked to genetic variations in individuals or differences in phenotypic plasticity caused by different experiences that the individual faces throughout lifetime, or a mixture of both factors. \u0000An individual’s personality can be shown by their behavioural reaction pattern. A behavioural reaction pattern is a set of behavioural phenotypes expressed by an individual in a specific set of environmental conditions. When investigating the behavioural reaction of an individual, the concept of behavioural instability can be applied. The application of behavioural instability is a quantitative approach that incorporates the personalities of animals. This method can therefore provide researchers with a relatively unbiased assessment of behavioural responses, thus enabling the reproducibility of results. The results of these evaluations can furthermore be used to indicate the effectiveness of enrichment strategies and thereby contribute to the improvement of enrichment programs and animal welfare in captivity. Behavioural instability as a quantitative and systematic approach is also relevant in animal conservation studies. It has been debated whether the study of animal personality can contribute with new k","PeriodicalId":12670,"journal":{"name":"GABJ","volume":"74 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90690709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}