We studied the ability of 32 lambs reared artificially in groups of four to discriminate between their shepherd and an unknown shepherd. Half of the lambs were bottle fed in isolation by one shepherd ...during the first 3 wk. The other half was fed alternately by three shepherds. Lambs had no visual contact with humans for the next 3 wk. Lambs were weaned at 6 wk of age and reared together with the minimum human contact necessary for rearing management. Lambs were tested at 3, 6, and 14 wk of age, investigating the effect of the rearing conditions on the response to isolation and to reunion with the known or an unknown shepherd. During tests, lambs were observed in isolation for 1 min, in the presence of a shepherd who entered and squatted at one end of the pen for 1 min, trying to touch the lambs if they approached, again in isolation for 1 min. Early rearing management (one vs three shepherds) had no significant effect on any criteria studied. Lambs vocalized and moved less when in the presence of the shepherd than when isolated. They vocalized less, moved less, approached more quickly, and interacted more with the known than with an unknown shepherd. The difference persisted after 3 wk spent without visual human contact. However, no difference was evident at 14 wk of age. The effect of shepherd knowledge is clearly demonstrated by this experiment after an intensive early period of contact
Since birth, twenty-four beef calves received either minimal or extensive contact with one experimenter and were observed in three tests between three and four months of age. In the first test, the ...calves observed with the familiar motionless experimenter spent less time away from a feeding bucket (5.6 ± 4.0 s) than when with an unfamiliar experimenter (21.3 ± 19.5 s) during the first repetition of test (
P < 0.01). Differences between experimenters during the second repetition were not significant. The effects of clothes (familiar or unfamiliar) and of the two rearing treatments were also not significant. In the second test, the calves that had received extensive contact with their caretaker during rearing allowed themselves to be touched on the shoulders more quickly (50.4 ± 52.4 s) when they were eating in the feeding bucket than those which had received minimal contact (89.6 ± 55.5 s). Animals that had minimal contact during rearing allowed the familiar experimenter to touch their heads more quickly (106.7 ± 64.1 s) than an unknown experimenter (161.7 ± 34.6) (
P < 0.05). However, the identity of the human did not affect time taken by calves to allow their heads to be touched if they had been reared in extensive contact with a caretaker. No difference was observed between calves when led on to an unfamiliar weighing crate. Cattle, thus, show different reactions to human beings depending on their familiarity with the human, their previous human experience and the properties of the testing conditions for the animal.
Le statut juridique de l’animal reconnu comme «être sensible», induit de fait qu’une réflexion sur le travail en élevage et la relation homme-animal doit prendre en compte le point de vue de ...l’éleveur, et celui de l’animal. Les enjeux sociétaux, se situent autant en termes d’efficacité du travail et de qualité de vie pour les professions agricoles, qu’en terme de bien-être animal. Cet article de synthèse s’intéresse à la pluridisciplinarité, en particulier entre sciences sociales et éthologie afin de comprendre et d’améliorer les pratiques d’élevage déterminantes dans la relation homme-animal. L’analyse du temps de travail, regardée sous l’angle des contacts hommeanimal révèle une forte diversité suivant les filières et les exploitations. Les diversités de profils des éleveurs, de leurs représentations de l’animal et du travail avec l’animal, et de leurs logiques d’élevage sont rapportées. De son côté, l’éthologie définit un cadre conceptuel fondé sur le fait que l’éleveur et l’animal construisent par leurs interactions répétées une relation interindividuelle qui leur permet de prévoir l’issue de leurs futures interactions. La réaction des animaux à l’homme traduit donc une synthèse des interactions passées et permet d’une certaine façon d’évaluer leur relation. Les études en éthologie montrent que l’animal intègre effectivement l’homme dans son univers relationnel. L’article pointe l’intérêt de décrire la variabilité des pratiques relationnelles de l’éleveur et de les évaluer afin d’obtenir une relation homme-animal bénéfique tant pour l’homme que pour l’animal.
In this paper, we assessed the relative importance of handling and feeding lambs in the development of affinity for their stockperson. We also tested the extent to which this affinity can be linked ...to feeding motivation and behaviour in a conditioning hypothesis. Lambs were reared in groups of three and artificially fed from a multiple-nipple bucket. From the first day of age, contacts with the stockperson were given in the home pens three times a day for 5 consecutive days, then 2 days a week until the tests. In five groups (Presence), the stockperson sat motionless; in five groups (Handling), he caught the lambs and stroked them; in six groups (Handling & Feeding), he caught and stroked the lambs while placing them at the food bucket. At 3.5 weeks of age, the lambs were individually tested in a 6
m
×
1.5
m arena. In Test 1 (Human Test), the lambs stayed 2
min alone, 2
min with the familiar stockperson, then 2
min alone again. In Test 2 (Bucket Test), a milk bucket was added to the arena and the same procedure was followed. For each test, the lambs were observed after 5
h of starvation or ad libitum feeding (cross-over design). In the Human Test, Presence lambs spent less time near the stockperson (27
±
7
s) than Handling lambs (59
±
9
s,
P
=
0.03) or Handling & Feeding lambs (59
±
6
s,
P
=
0.03). In the Bucket Test, three lambs suckled from the bucket. Only Handling & Feeding lambs increased their time spent near the bucket when the stockperson entered (treatment
x time,
P
=
0.05). No interaction between the treatments and the hunger state was observed in any test.
Handling per se contributed to the development of lambs’ affinity for their stockperson during individual tests, and could have calming and rewarding properties for the lambs. Neither feeding from a bucket during handling nor hunger state increased this affinity. Nevertheless, some association of the stockperson with the milk bucket seemed to occur, suggesting a food conditioning. The way of feeding the animals and their perception of the test as an alimentary situation are discussed.
The objectives of this experiment were to evaluate the effect of early human contact and of the separation method from the dam on the future relationships of calves with humans, and to investigate ...the relationship between dam responses and calf responses. Thirty-three Salers calves aged 2–4 days old and reared outdoors were split into 3-week treatments balanced according to sex and birth dates. Group 1 (long separation from the dam and human contact: LS
+
H;
n
=
11) underwent 8
h of separation from the dam per day and 5
min of individual stroking; group 2 (short separation from the dam and human contact: SS
+
H;
n
=
11) underwent 1
h of separation and the same amount of human contact as LS
+
H calves. Group 3 (short separation from the dam and no human contact: SS
−
H;
n
=
11) was a control group undergoing the same duration of separation as SS
+
H but without stroking. At 3, 15 and 45 weeks of age, the calves were tested in a standard arena test (AT) where they were successively left alone (2
min), left with a stationary human (5
min), and left with a human approaching and touching them (2
min). At 15 and 45 weeks, the calves were also tested with the standard docility test (DT: test of restraint). The dams were also tested with DT 2 months before calving. Data analysis via Mann–Whitney tests and Spearman's correlations showed no significant effect of the duration calves were separated from their dams. Just after treatment at 3-week of age, calves given stroking (LS
+
H and SS
+
H) were more motionless and more willing to accept human contact (AT: touching) than control calves (SS
−
H,
P
<
0.01). At 45 weeks of age, calves given stroking spent also significantly more time (
P
<
0.05) motionless with the approaching human compared to non-stroked calves (SS
−
H), suggesting a persistent effect. However, this effect was not reproduced on the other behavioural criteria recorded (e.g., duration of human contact or docility score). In the different tests and at the different ages, the docility scores of the dams were significantly correlated (up to 0.7,
P
<
0.01) with behaviour towards humans shown by stroked calves but not non-stroked calves (SS
−
H). Our results suggest that additional human contact at early age, but not duration of the separation from the dam, could be beneficial for the human–animal relationship, but only for calves born to docile dams.
Feeding young mammals is often used as a way to increase their affinity to their human caregiver. However, feeding is not always necessary, which raises questions as to the feeding method used ...(bottle, bucket) and to the importance of contacts surrounding feeding compared to an absence of human contact. These questions are the focus of this study.
At early age, lambs were divided into 4 treatments: no contact, holding, holding and hand-feeding with a bottle (hand bottle-fed), or feeding using a bottle attached to a stand (wall bottle-fed). The treatment sessions (5
min) were repeatedly applied every day for 1 week and then twice-a-week for 2 weeks. Contacts to the caregiver were measured during the treatments. Then, from 3 weeks of age, the lambs were tested in an unfamiliar pen to measure their attraction to the caregiver and the effects of caregiver presence and departure on distress behaviours. Exploration of objects and response to a sudden event in the presence of the caregiver were also measured.
During the treatments, hand bottle-fed lambs interacted more with their caregiver (54
±
2% of the observations) than held lambs (25
±
3%,
p
<
0.001), while both interacted more than wall bottle-fed lambs (19
±
2%,
p
<
0.001). In unfamiliar environments, affinity to the caregiver (latency to approach, time spent near the caregiver) was not increased by feeding, but all lambs from treatments involving human contact expressed a higher affinity than “no contact” lambs (
p
<
0.05). Handled lambs showed a decrease in distress behaviours in the presence of their caregiver and an increase in these responses after separation. Exploration was not affected by the treatments but held lambs returned faster to their caregiver after a sudden event (9
s (3–16)) than the other lambs (42
s (13–60) for wall bottle-fed, 61
s (61–61) for the others,
p
=
0.02).
Thus, even if food does orient animals to the place where it is provided, it does not allow the development of an affinity for a human caregiver that can be generalised out of the home environment; holding lambs is sufficient to achieve this. These soft physical contacts could be rewarding due to the gregariousness of sheep.
The horse’s temperament, including its manageability and reactivity and/or fearfulness, is of importance as it can result in problems and can render horses unsuitable for inexperienced riders.
Early ...experience, including handling during infancy, may influence the horse’s adult behaviour and reduce its fear of humans and other potentially frigthening situations. In the various species studied, handling has generally been undertaken during the neonatal period. The aim of the present study was to test the effects of handling young horses around the time of weaning, a period which has been demonstrated to be effective in increasing ease of handling in cattle and goats.
Sixteen Anglo-Arab foals were handled for 12 days either immediately following weaning (early handled: EH) or 21 days later (late handled: LH); eight additional non-handled foals served as controls (C). Handling consisted of haltering, gently petting all parts of the body, picking up feet and leading the foal over 120
m. During handling sessions, EH were easier to handle than LH: time taken to fit them with a halter, to pick up feet, and “walk-ratio” (time walking under constraint/total time walking) were significantly lower for EH. During subsequent tests conducted over 2 days, 4, and 7 months, as well as 10 months and to some extent 18 months after the end of handling period, EH and LH were easier to handle and less reactive than controls, although differences diminished with time. The period following weaning can therefore be qualified as an “optimal period” for handling. Some of the effects persist for at least 18 months.
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