Interspecies animal "friendships"
Even though conspecific close relationships are well documented, scientific studies done on interspecies close relationships are scarce. There is no agreement of using the word friendships without inverted commas when describing close relationships of animals. But here in this thesis, I would like t...
| Autor principal: | |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Second cycle, A2E |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés Inglés |
| Publicado: |
2017
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/9959/ |
| _version_ | 1855571615216041984 |
|---|---|
| author | Silva, Nadil |
| author_browse | Silva, Nadil |
| author_facet | Silva, Nadil |
| author_sort | Silva, Nadil |
| collection | Epsilon Archive for Student Projects |
| description | Even though conspecific close relationships are well documented, scientific studies done on interspecies close relationships are scarce. There is no agreement of using the word friendships without inverted commas when describing close relationships of animals. But here in this thesis, I would like to use the word friendships when describing close animal relationships without inverted commas. However, many such friendships have been reported all over the world. Therefore the aim of this master thesis was to investigate the nature of interspecies friendships and which factors that could affect the beginning and continuation of such friendship by using videos available at YouTube.
Five research questions were asked during this thesis: (1) Did animals that have developed interspecies friendships experienced a stress event, (2) Does play facilitate to start and develop a friendship between two species, (3) Do young animals tend to engage in interspecies friendships more often than older animals, (4) Do interspecies friendships occur more often under human captivity than in nature and, (5) Are there any risks involved with having interspecies friendships.
In this project hundred YouTube videos showing interspecies friendship that included 57 different animal species were behaviourally recorded and analysed using SAS 9.2 software. In addition, three selected videos out of the hundred videos were analysed in detail using behaviour sequences. This was done to identify in which order behaviours occur during some specific interspecies friendships.
Four stress events that appeared to have facilitated the development of interspecies friendships were identified: being orphan, separation from the mother, unfavourable environment, and predator encounter. The first four most often recorded behaviours during interspecies friendships were social play, proximity to each other, social bonding and neutral behaviours. Most of the videos with interspecies friendships had been filmed in captivity and only few in the wild. The different major captive environments that these friendships had been filmed in were identified as: at private homes, in wildlife parks, orphanage, zoological gardens, and on farms. The films showed interactions between animals that in 91.4% were young (less than 12 months) and in 8.6% were adults (more than 12 months). Adult animals seemed to perform more social bonding and proximity whereas younger animals seemed to perform more play behaviour together. On films no injuries or risks to the animal welfare were observed. Interspecies friendships have been reported in the literature to involve some risks and they have been identified as: stress, anxiety, accidents, converting friendships into predator-prey relationship, increased vulnerability as a prey and sudden aggression.
The conclusions from this study are that the filmed animals appeared to have experiences some sort of stress event prior to developing interspecies friendships. Play was a common behaviour during interspecies interactions on the films. The major part of the filmed animals were less than one year. Interspecies friendships were more often filmed in human captivity than in nature. Interspecies friendships are not always beneficial but involve risks. |
| format | Second cycle, A2E |
| id | RepoSLU9959 |
| institution | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| language | Inglés Inglés |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publishDateSort | 2017 |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | RepoSLU99592017-02-01T12:45:31Z https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/9959/ Interspecies animal "friendships" Silva, Nadil Animal ecology Even though conspecific close relationships are well documented, scientific studies done on interspecies close relationships are scarce. There is no agreement of using the word friendships without inverted commas when describing close relationships of animals. But here in this thesis, I would like to use the word friendships when describing close animal relationships without inverted commas. However, many such friendships have been reported all over the world. Therefore the aim of this master thesis was to investigate the nature of interspecies friendships and which factors that could affect the beginning and continuation of such friendship by using videos available at YouTube. Five research questions were asked during this thesis: (1) Did animals that have developed interspecies friendships experienced a stress event, (2) Does play facilitate to start and develop a friendship between two species, (3) Do young animals tend to engage in interspecies friendships more often than older animals, (4) Do interspecies friendships occur more often under human captivity than in nature and, (5) Are there any risks involved with having interspecies friendships. In this project hundred YouTube videos showing interspecies friendship that included 57 different animal species were behaviourally recorded and analysed using SAS 9.2 software. In addition, three selected videos out of the hundred videos were analysed in detail using behaviour sequences. This was done to identify in which order behaviours occur during some specific interspecies friendships. Four stress events that appeared to have facilitated the development of interspecies friendships were identified: being orphan, separation from the mother, unfavourable environment, and predator encounter. The first four most often recorded behaviours during interspecies friendships were social play, proximity to each other, social bonding and neutral behaviours. Most of the videos with interspecies friendships had been filmed in captivity and only few in the wild. The different major captive environments that these friendships had been filmed in were identified as: at private homes, in wildlife parks, orphanage, zoological gardens, and on farms. The films showed interactions between animals that in 91.4% were young (less than 12 months) and in 8.6% were adults (more than 12 months). Adult animals seemed to perform more social bonding and proximity whereas younger animals seemed to perform more play behaviour together. On films no injuries or risks to the animal welfare were observed. Interspecies friendships have been reported in the literature to involve some risks and they have been identified as: stress, anxiety, accidents, converting friendships into predator-prey relationship, increased vulnerability as a prey and sudden aggression. The conclusions from this study are that the filmed animals appeared to have experiences some sort of stress event prior to developing interspecies friendships. Play was a common behaviour during interspecies interactions on the films. The major part of the filmed animals were less than one year. Interspecies friendships were more often filmed in human captivity than in nature. Interspecies friendships are not always beneficial but involve risks. Så kallad vänskap mellan individer inom samma djurart är väl dokumenterat, men vetenskapliga studier på vänskap mellan olika djurarter är få. Emellertid har många sådana vänskaper rapporterats över hela världen. Syftet med detta mastersarbete var därför att med hjälp av YouTube filmer försöka förstå vilken typ av vänskap som finns mellan olika arter och vilka olika faktorer som kan påverka bildandet och bevarandet av sådan vänskap. Fem forskningsfrågor ställdes i början av undersökningen: (1) Har djur som har utvecklat mellanarts vänskap” upplevt en stressande händelse? (2) Kan lek underlätta starten och utvecklandet av vänskap mellan två arter? (3) Tenderar unga djur att engagera sig i vänskap mellan arter oftare än äldre djur? (4) Förekommer vänskap mellan arter oftare i mänsklig fångenskap än i naturen? (5) Finns det några risker med vänskap mellan arter? I detta mastersarbete letades 100 videofilmer som visar vänskap mellan olika djurarter upp från YouTube. Filmerna omfattade tillsammans 57 olika djurarter. Data på beteende och annan information lades in i Excel-ark och deskriptiva dataanalyser gjordes med hjälp av SAS version 9,2. Dessutom har tre utvalda filmer av de ursprungliga filmerna analyserats i detalj med hjälp av beteendesekvenser. Detta gjordes för att identifiera i vilken ordning beteenden inträffar under vissa specifika interaktioner mellan arter. Fyra stresshändelser som föreföll ha underlättat utvecklingen av vänskap mellan olika arter identifierades: att vara föräldralös, separation från modern, ogynnsam miljö, och rovdjursmöten. De fyra oftast inspelade beteendena under vänskap mellan olika arter var social lek, närhet till varandra, social bindning och neutrala beteenden. De flesta av filmerna som visade vänskap mellan arter hade filmats i fångenskap och endast ett fåtal i naturen. De olika fångenskapsmiljöer som dessa vänskaper mellan olika arter huvudsakligen hade filmats i identifierades som: i privata hem, i viltreservat, på hem för övergivna djurungar, på zoologiska trädgårdar och på lantbruksgårdar. Filmerna visade interaktioner mellan djur som i 91,4 % var unga (yngre än 12 månader) och i 8,6% var vuxna (äldre än 12 månader). Vuxna djur verkade ha mer social bindning och närhet medan yngre djur verkade utföra mer lekbeteende tillsammans. På filmerna observerades inga skador eller risker för djurens välbefinnande. Vänskap mellan arter har i litteraturen rapporterats innebära vissa risker, och de har identifierats som: stress, ångest, olyckor, skifta vänskap till rovdjur-bytesdjur relation, ökad sårbarhet som bytesdjur och plötslig aggressivitet. Slutsatserna från denna studie är att de filmade djuren verkar ha upplevt någon typ av stressande händelse innan de utvecklade vänskap med en annan art. Lek var ett vanligt beteende under interaktionerna mellan olika arter på filmerna och den största andelen av djuren var under 12 månader. Vänskap mellan olika arter var oftare filmade i fångenskap än i naturen. Vänskap mellan olika arter är inte alltid värdefulla utan innebär även risker. 2017-01-31 Second cycle, A2E NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/9959/1/silva_n_170201.pdf Silva, Nadil, 2017. Interspecies animal "friendships". Second cycle, A2E. Uppsala: (VH) > Dept. of Animal Environment and Health (until 231231) <https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/view/divisions/OID-880.html> urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-s-6209 eng |
| spellingShingle | Animal ecology Silva, Nadil Interspecies animal "friendships" |
| title | Interspecies animal "friendships" |
| title_full | Interspecies animal "friendships" |
| title_fullStr | Interspecies animal "friendships" |
| title_full_unstemmed | Interspecies animal "friendships" |
| title_short | Interspecies animal "friendships" |
| title_sort | interspecies animal "friendships" |
| topic | Animal ecology |
| url | https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/9959/ https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/9959/ |