Social Housing & Companionship

Insights from the judgement bias paradigm: Social group and tank size do not affect mental state in female guppies

Optimal holding conditions are key to animal welfare. How stressful husbandry is perceived by the animal can be determined via an assessment of an animal’s mental state – where it is positioned on the continuum between optimistic and pessimistic states...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Housing, Social Housing & Companionship, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: Fish, Other Fish

Citation: Epping, J., Kotrschal, A., Kotrschal, S. D. 2025. Insights from the judgement bias paradigm: Social group and tank size do not affect mental state in female guppies. Journal of Fish Biology 106(1), 12–19.

Evaluating outcomes of diazepam administration in gradual steps introductions of adult male and female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Social housing remains one of the best forms of environmental enhancement for nonhuman primates (NHPs). The gradual steps (GS) method, a 2-step plan involving an initial phase of limited physical contact (protected contact [PC]) prior to full contact (FC), is...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Myers, A. K., Baker, K. C., Kubisch, M. J. et al. 2025. Evaluating outcomes of diazepam administration in gradual steps introductions of adult male and female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science 64(1), 146–154.

Examining factors that predict social pairing compatibility of female swine (Sus scrofa domesticus) in a research setting

Socially housing gregarious species enhances animal welfare by increasing affiliative interactions, exploratory behaviors, and other species-specific behaviors, while conferring decreased rates of abnormal behaviors. In addition, most regulatory guidelines promote social housing as a minimum standard to promote the wellbeing...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Pig

Citation: Bailey, A. L., Griffin, E., Painter, M. C. et al. 2025. Examining factors that predict social pairing compatibility of female swine (Sus scrofa domesticus) in a research setting. Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science 64(3), 418–428.

Effects of social enrichment induced by different-sized groups and live bait on growth, aggressive behavior, physiology, and neurogenesis in juvenile Sebastes schlegelii (2025)

This study examined the effects of stress and social enrichment on fish neuroplasticity and antioxidant capacity, addressing growing concerns about fish welfare in aquaculture. A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design comprising eight treatment groups was implemented to investigate...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Fish, Other Fish

Citation: Zhang, Z., Yu, X., Wu, Z. et al. 2025. Effects of social enrichment induced by different-sized groups and live bait on growth, aggressive behavior, physiology, and neurogenesis in juvenile Sebastes schlegelii. Fishes 10(5), 242.

Alleviating isolation stress in chickens: The benefits of home pen playback and mirrors (2025)

This study investigated whether the provision of (1) a mirror or (2) video and sound playback of conspecifics in the home pen (i.e., playback) could alleviate stress in socially isolated adult domestic chickens. Thirty adult chickens participated in the study,...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Bird, Chicken

Citation: Sirovnik, J. 2025. Alleviating isolation stress in chickens: The benefits of home pen playback and mirrors. PLOS ONE 20(2), e0318126.

Mixing groups of sheep changes vocalizations when an individual animal is isolated (2025)

In recent years, welfare, which includes pleasurable and unpleasant emotions, is of utmost importance in animals reared under intensive farming systems. Various indices have been reported to evaluate welfare. Among them, vocalizations form non-invasive indices of animals' inner state. The...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Sheep

Citation: Papadaki, K., Bizelis, I., Laliotis, G. P. 2025. Mixing groups of sheep changes vocalizations when an individual animal is isolated. Discover Animals 2(1), 5.

Social enrichment to reduce pacing in a solitary housed male lion-tailed macaque Macaca silenus (2025)

Environmental enrichment is frequently used to improve the captive environment, aiming to enhance the quality of captive animal care. Social enrichment is considered to be the most effective form of enrichment for captive primates, particularly in the reduction of abnormal...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Macaque, Nonhuman Primate

Citation: Newman, R., Quirke, T., McKeown, S. et al. 2025. Social enrichment to reduce pacing in a solitary housed male lion-tailed macaque Macaca silenus. Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research 13(1), 52–55.

By your side: How social support affects training duration, task performance and behaviour of pigs in a judgement bias task (2025)

Pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) and most other farmed species are social animals for whom social isolation is known to cause stress. However, their social nature is commonly ignored in behavioural and cognitive tasks, on which they are trained and tested...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Pig

Citation: Kroell, M., Winckler, C., Hintze, S. 2025. By your side: How social support affects training duration, task performance and behaviour of pigs in a Judgement Bias Task. Animal Welfare 34, e25.

Guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) welfare: Associations between husbandry practices, human–animal interactions, and animal behaviour (2025)

Research on the welfare of pet guinea pigs and connections between their behaviour and husbandry practices is scarce. Through an online survey among 1181 German-speaking guinea pig caretakers, we investigated husbandry practices (including social composition, housing type, free roaming, enrichment,...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Housing, Human-Animal Interaction, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Guinea Pig, Rodent

Citation: Elsbacher, T., Sommese, A., Waiblinger, S. et al. 2025. Guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) welfare: Associations between husbandry practices, human–animal interactions, and animal behaviour. Animals 15(8), 1157.

A metric-based, meta-analytic appraisal of environmental enrichment efficacy in captive primates (2025)

Non-human primates (hereafter ‘primates') constitute a common group of animals in captivity but their captive maintenance involves ethical and husbandry issues, many of which can be addressed through environmental enrichment (hereafter ‘enrichment'). Enrichment is often applied in a trial-and-error fashion...

Year Published: 2025Topics: Environmental Enrichment, Social Housing & CompanionshipAnimal Type: Baboon, Capuchin, Chimpanzee, Gibbon, Lemur, Macaque, Marmoset, Nonhuman Primate, Other Nonhuman Primate, Owl Monkey, Squirrel Monkey, Vervet (African Green Monkey)

Citation: Duncan, L. M., Pillay, N. 2025. A metric-based, meta-analytic appraisal of environmental enrichment efficacy in captive primates. Animals 15(6), 799.