Evidence for Individual Differences in Behaviour and for Behavioural Syndromes in Adult Shelter Cats.

Autor: Martínez-Byer S; Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Unidad de Posgrado, Edificio A, 1er Piso, Circuito de Posgrados, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, CP 04510, Mexico., Urrutia A; Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Unidad de Posgrado, Edificio A, 1er Piso, Circuito de Posgrados, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, CP 04510, Mexico.; Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 70228, CP 04510, Mexico., Szenczi P; CONACYT-Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, Unidad Psicopatología y Desarrollo, Calz. México-Xochimilco 101, CP 14370, Mexico., Hudson R; Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 70228, CP 04510, Mexico., Bánszegi O; Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 70228, CP 04510, Mexico.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Animals : an open access journal from MDPI [Animals (Basel)] 2020 Jun 01; Vol. 10 (6). Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Jun 01.
DOI: 10.3390/ani10060962
Abstrakt: Consistent inter-individual differences in behaviour have been previously reported in adult shelter cats. In this study, we aimed to assess whether repeatable individual differences in behaviours exhibited by shelter cats in different situations were interrelated, forming behavioural syndromes. We tested 31 adult cats in five different behavioural tests, repeated three times each: a struggle test where an experimenter restrained the cat, a separation/confinement test where the cat spent 2 min in a pet carrier, a mouse test where the cat was presented with a live mouse in a jar, and two tests where the cat reacted to an unfamiliar human who remained either passive or actively approached the cat. Individual differences in behaviour were consistent (repeatable) across repeated trials for each of the tests. We also found associations between some of the behaviours shown in the different tests, several of which appeared to be due to differences in human-oriented behaviours. This study is the first to assess the presence of behavioural syndromes using repeated behavioural tests in different situations common in the daily life of a cat, and which may prove useful in improving the match between prospective owner and cat in shelter adoption programmes.
Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Databáze: MEDLINE
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