Behavioural responses to separation from human companion in the domestic cat: A survey-based study.

Autor: Kerman K; Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, Turkey. Electronic address: kaan.kerman@bilkent.edu.tr., Demirbas YS; Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Turkey., Atilgan D; Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Turkey., Isparta S; Department of Genetics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Turkey; Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-University, Germany., Saral B; Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ankara University, Turkey., Pereira J; Centro Para o Conhecimento Animal, Portugal., Da Graça Pereira G; Universidade Egas Moniz, Portugal.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Behavioural processes [Behav Processes] 2023 Aug; Vol. 210, pp. 104892. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 May 20.
DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104892
Abstrakt: The domestic cat is known to react to social separation, though the conceptual relationship between separation-related behaviours outside of a clinical context has not been described in detail. We did an online survey on participants who had cats in their households (Nparticipants=114; Ncats=133) and asked them to evaluate the frequency of 12 behavioural elements associated with social separation from human companions on a 5- point Likert Scale. We performed two dimensionality reduction techniques (component and factor analyses) to assess whether the specified behaviours related to social separation belonged to the same axis. We found four distinct dimensions instead of one: (a) reactivity towards companion departure cues, (b) protest behaviour towards inaccessibility, (c) unusual elimination behaviour, and (d) negative responses following social separation. Our findings suggest a manifestation of different motivational states rather than a single, separation-related construct. Future studies would benefit from a careful evaluation of the separation-related behaviours in a multi-measure context to improve the accuracy of ethological classifications.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors do not have any conflict of interest to declare.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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