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1 #AnimBehav2021 Contrafreeloading (CFL) describes a phenomenon where animals work for a resource, even if the same resource is available for free and has been investigated in several captive animal species such as pigs, cattle, giraffes, starlings or grizzlies.
2 #AnimBehav2021 The performance of species-specific foraging behaviour and a need for a sense of control have been proposed as explanations for CFL. So far, less focus has been placed on factors that might affect its inclination, such as breeding for high productivity.
3 #AnimBehav2021 In our study, goats could choose to either feed from an open door or open a closed sliding door to access food (= CFL). They could also decide not to participate in a trial at all. These choices were analysed using an Item Response Tree GLMM.
4 #AnimBehav2021 We found that both, dwarf and dairy goats were motivated to participate in most trials. For dwarf goats, the probability to demonstrate CFL increased over trials (from 0.30-0.53), while for dairy goats it stayed high from the start (approx. 0.43).
5 #AnimBehav2021 Selection lines differed in approach times in a LMM. Dwarf goats’ approach times towards both doors were similar at start (3.5 s), but decreased for the open door. Dairy goats approach times were constant, but 0.5 sec shorter for the closed than the open door.
6 #AnimBehav2021 Our results indicate that the provision of tasks to execute control over the environment may fulfil a behavioural need & could improve the welfare of farm animals living in barren environments. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-78931-w
