AnimalBehaviorist.us

31/08/2025

"Five main themes were identified: perception of welfare issues; conflicting conceptions of a good life; objectification of the horse; instrumentalisation of horse care; and enculturation. Participants perceived and were concerned about horse welfare, but expressed dissonance-reducing strategies, including trivialisation, reframing and justification. Participants shared conflicting conceptions of a good life and described how equestrian activities may infringe upon horse welfare. Objectification of horses was among the attitudinal factors identified that may permit persistence of harmful practices, while the instrumentalisation of care theme showed how management practices often focused on performance and the horse’s job more than care about the horse. Finally, enculturation (the process of adopting attitudes and behaviours of a culture) in equestrianism may be fundamental to maintaining practices and attitudes that compromise horse welfare. These findings provide an enhanced understanding of why horse welfare issues persist in classical equestrian disciplines and may inform future human behaviour change strategies to promote improved horse welfare."

“But my horse is well cared for”: A qualitative exploration of cognitive dissonance and enculturation in equestrian attitudes toward performance horses and their welfare - Volume 34

30/08/2025

"She has not done much more than walk in through unlocked doors and windows," Bryant said, adding that once the bodyguard operation was launched, the bear is now being constantly watched and hazed away from homes when she tries to get in.

"She has never even bluff charged anybody. She's absolutely 10 times better than some of the other mama bears down in that area," Bryant said, adding that the real problem was that some homeowners in the neighborhood were not being responsible about their garbage or closing and locking their doors and windows and "she is being scapegoated."

Despite the brouhaha over Hope/Sow #753, officials said there has not been a huge uptick in bear conflict this summer in Lake Tahoe.

Since May 1, officials said, there have been 170 incidents of bear-related property damage reported to the state, along with 18 cases of "general nuisance" caused by bears and two unspecified public safety incidents."

With its luxury vacation homes dotted through alpine forests, its tens of thousands of tourists, and its huge concentration of the species Ursus americanus has long been at the center of California's human-bear conflicts.

25/08/2025

"Animal training should have never followed laboratory science down the shocking rabbit hole that promoted pain and especially long-term pain to change behavior. There is never any reason to use pain to teach basic manners or compliance. Moreover, with human nature being what it is, of course, pain was begging to be misused. (If you want to learn more, read about the Milgram experiment)." - Ian Dunbar "Barking Up the Right Tree"

Preaching to the converted but the hardest to bear is seeing and hearing the followers of the proponents of pain to control behavior. Proponents often citing dominion and/or studies on shock and laboratory rats as guiding principles. And finding these studies somehow superior to applied animal behavior peer reviewed research. Perhaps somewhere, somehow, such confirmation bias can be dissuaded but where is the middle ground with cultural beliefs that such dominion is the right of humanity. That ethics and morality need equal footing, without which, at the end, there is no humanity?

23/08/2025

Change to pet care providers that only use force free, low stress methods. Have grooming done at home where you can observe those methods are in place. Stay in the room at the vet clinic and similarly, make sure that exams or procedures are done, force free and low stress. And if you're not sure what this looks like. Find out first by looking at credible sites like https://icatcare.org/ or https://animalbehaviorist.us/

23/08/2025

Every being feels pain, a biological dictate to survival. More to know that the animals knew all along . "The researchers also tested the insects' response to painful stimuli while in this state. They found that when they subjected different parts of the caterpillar's body to heat, the insects showed reduced responsiveness.

To work out how the sphinx state is triggered, the researchers performed surgery on the cerebral ganglion, the main part of the insect brain. They discovered that the brain region that controls movement and sensory input cannot activate the state automatically. In other words, it is not a passive response but one that the caterpillars actively choose to do."

When to***co hornworm caterpillars feel pain, they don't wriggle or try to escape. Instead, according to the latest research, they dial down their pain response by adopting a posture known as the "sphinx" state, so called because it resembles an ancient sphinx statue.

21/08/2025

"We were astonished by how gentle and cooperative these apex predators are."

"The most endearing behavior was forming a tight cuddle-ball when falling asleep: each bat wrapping one wing around its nearest neighbor, all snouts touching."

"Rather than hunting and raising young in isolation, V. spectrum shows complex cooperation behavior, strong monogamous pair bonds, as well as extended parental investment and biparental care—traits highly unusual in carnivorous mammals, especially bats."

"I was astonished to find that the bats seemed to recognize me after several consecutive weeks of visiting the roost. At first, I was greeted with threat-like calls, and the bats broke their roosting formation to hide in the corners.

"But over time, their response shifted to just a few curious looks—no vocalizations, and they remained in a relaxed roosting formation. Even after nine months away, they appeared to recognize me immediately when I returned the following season."

The world's largest carnivorous bat has a surprisingly rich social life, displaying affectionate greetings and providing food to family group members, according to a study by Marisa Tietge at Museum für Naturkunde—Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science in Germany, and colleagues...

19/08/2025

"It also raises new questions about how species balance clarity and complexity. More signals can help get attention, but also increase the risk of being misunderstood—and signals need to match the senses of the animals they're meant for. Now that we've seen this ability in dippers, it suggests that switching between senses may be more common in nature than we realize. In that sense, we may be seeing just the tip of the iceberg—and it's exciting to think about where this research could go next."

As anyone who has tried to hold a conversation in a noisy room knows, it is sometimes easier to rely on hand gestures than to shout over the din. White-throated dippers face a similar challenge along the fast-flowing streams they inhabit, where the roar of fast-flowing waters can sometimes drown out...