Social Housing & Companionship

Why does lifelong conventional housing reduce the sociability of female mice?

Compared to peers raised in well-resourced, 'enriched' environments (‘EE'), female laboratory mice from conventional barren cages are more aggressive to their cage-mates, and less sociable with familiar non-cage-mates (especially if these too are from conventional housing, ‘CH'). But how do...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Housing, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Kitchenham, L., Nazal, B., Adcock, A. et al. 2022. Why does lifelong conventional housing reduce the sociability of female mice? Applied Animal Behaviour Science 246, 105532.

Out of sight, out of mind or just something in the way? Visual barriers do not reduce intraspecific agonism in an all-male group of Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus)

Here, we evaluated if visual barriers could reduce intraspecific agonism in an all-male group of Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) living in a zoo. Crocodiles were monitored for nearly 100 h, and four “hotspots” of aggression within their exhibit were identified....

Year Published: 2022Topics: Housing, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Crocodile & Alligator, Reptile

Citation: Leeds, A., Riley, A., Terry, M. et al. 2022. Out of sight, out of mind or just something in the way? Visual barriers do not reduce intraspecific agonism in an all-male group of Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus). Animals 12(3), 269.

Early socialisation in group lactation system reduces post-weaning aggression in piglets

Background: Pre-weaning group housing for sows and their litters is expected to enhance animal welfare. However, knowledge of potential benefits of pre-weaning socialisation for piglets after weaning is still lacking. Methods: Weaner pigs were mixed in groups of 10, using...

Year Published: 2021Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Pig

Citation: Fels, M., Schrey, L., Rauterberg, S. et al. 2021. Early socialisation in group lactation system reduces post-weaning aggression in piglets. Veterinary Record 189(12), e830.

An apparatus for automatically training and collecting individualized behavioral data with socially housed rodents

Background: Conventional methods for individually housing, training, and testing rodents in behavioral assays can impose constraints that may limit some kinds of experimental external validity, preempt environmental enrichment, impose heavy experimenter time burdens that limit high-throughput data collection, and negatively...

Year Published: 2022Topics: Behavioral & Cognitive Testing, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Rat, Rodent

Citation: Butcher, G., Davidson, A., Sloanc, A. et al. 2021. An apparatus for automatically training and collecting individualized behavioral data with socially housed rodents. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 365, 109387.

Group housing procedure of laboratory farm pigs

Our initial attempt was to individually place pigs in cages according to the serial numbers assigned by the vendor and remove cage inserts to combine those that happened to be next to each other. Unfortunately, this resulted in many fighting...

Year Published: 2021Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Pig

Citation: Watai, Y., Uchihashi, M. 2021. Group housing procedure of laboratory farm pigs. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 9(5) (September/October), 58-60.

Exploring refinement strategies for single housing of male C57BL/6JRj mice: Effect of cage divider on stress-related behavior and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis activity

Introduction: Single housing of laboratory mice is a common practice to meet experimental needs, or to avoid intermale aggression. However, single housing is considered to negatively affect animal welfare and may compromise the scientific validity of experiments. The aim of...

Year Published: 2021Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Citation: Buckinx, A., Van Schuerbeek, A., Bossuyt, J. et al. 2021. Exploring refinement strategies for single housing of male C57BL/6JRj mice: Effect of cage divider on stress-related behavior and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis activity. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 15, 743959.

Female social structure influences, and is influenced by, male introduction and integration success among captive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Animal social structure is influenced by multiple socioecological factors. Of these, the links between changes to group demography through the arrival of new individuals and residents' social structure remain unclear. Across seven groups of captive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), we...

Year Published: 2021Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Balasubramaniam, K. N., Beisner, B. A., McCowan, B. et al. 2021. Female social structure influences, and is influenced by, male introduction and integration success among captive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Behaviour 158(11), 1007–1042.

Exploring refinement strategies for single housing of male C57BL/6JRj mice: Effect of cage divider on stress-related behavior and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis activity

Year Published: 2021Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Mouse, Rodent

Housing density and aggression in Syrian hamsters

The Syrian hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) is a solitary and naturally territorial animal, with female hamsters being more aggressive than males. This behavior makes handling difficult because they are usually housed in groups, which can lead to aggressive behavior. The objective...

Year Published: 2021Topics: Social Housing & Companionship, Stocking DensityAnimal Type: Hamster, Rodent

Citation: da Silva Medeiros Elidio, H., Coelho, J. W. R., Cavalcanti Pereira da Silva, L. C. et al. 2021. Housing density and aggression in Syrian hamsters. JAALAS 60(5), 506-509.

The effects of alpha male removal on the social behavior of a group of olive baboons (Papio anubis)

In captivity, the managers of primate populations have removed individuals from their groups for medical and social reasons, but there has been little documentation regarding the consequences of this extraction on the sociality of the remaining individuals. This study provides...

Year Published: 2021Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Baboon, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Orient, E., Guillén-Salazar, F. 2021. The effects of alpha male removal on the social behavior of a group of olive baboons (Papio anubis). Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 24(4), 424-433.