Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T11:22:00.069Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cognitive sciences to relate ear postures to emotions in sheep

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

A Boissy ,
A Aubert ,
L Désiré ,
L Greiveldinger ,
E Delval  and
I Veissier
A Boissy*
Affiliation:
INRA, UR1213 Herbivores, Site de Theix, F-63122 Saint-Genès-Champanelle, France
A Aubert
Affiliation:
INRA, UR1213 Herbivores, Site de Theix, F-63122 Saint-Genès-Champanelle, France
L Désiré
Affiliation:
Exploitation et Sécurité Routières, CETE Ouest, F-22015 St Brieuc Cedex, France
L Greiveldinger
Affiliation:
UMR UJF CNRS 5525, Acquisition, Fusion d’Information et Réseaux pour la Médecine, Technopole du Biopark, F-74160 Archamps, France
E Delval
Affiliation:
INRA, UR1213 Herbivores, Site de Theix, F-63122 Saint-Genès-Champanelle, France
I Veissier
Affiliation:
INRA, UR1213 Herbivores, Site de Theix, F-63122 Saint-Genès-Champanelle, France
*
* Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints: alain.boissy@clermont.inra.fr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Emotions are now largely recognised as a core element in animal welfare issues. However, convenient indicators to reliably infer emotions are still needed. As such, the availability of behavioural postures analogous to facial expressions in humans would be extremely valuable for animal studies of emotions. The purpose of this paper is to find out stable expressive postures in sheep and to relate these expressive postures with specific emotional contexts. In an initial experiment, we identified discrete ear postures from a comprehensive approach which integrates all theoretically distinguishable ear postures. Four main ear postures were identified: horizontal ears (P posture); ears risen up (R posture); ears pointed backward (B posture); and asymmetric posture (A posture). In a second experiment, we studied how these ear postures were affected by specific emotional states elicited by exposing sheep to experimental situations in which elementary characteristics (ie suddenness and unfamiliarity, negative contrast and controllability) were manipulated. We found that: i) the horizontal P posture corresponds to a neutral state; ii) sheep point their ears backward (B posture) when they face unfamiliar and unpleasant uncontrollable situations, hence likely to elicit fear; iii) they point their ears up (R posture) when facing similar negative situations but controllable, hence likely to elicit anger; and iv) they expressed the asymmetric A posture in very sudden situations, likely to elicit surprise. By cross-fostering psychological and ethological approaches, we are able to propose an interpretation of ear postures in sheep relative to their emotions.

Keywords

animal welfarebehaviourcognitionear posturesemotionssheep
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , February 2011 , pp. 47 - 56
Copyright
© 2011 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berridge, KC 2000 Measuring hedonic impact in animals and infants: microstructure of affective taste reactivity patterns. Neuroscience Biobehavioural Review 24: 173–198CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berridge, KC 2003 Pleasures of the brain: affective neuroscience. Brain Cognition 52: 106–128CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boissy, A 1998 Fear and fearfulness in determining behavior. In: Grandin, T (ed) Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals pp 67–111. Academic Press: San Diego, USAGoogle Scholar
Boissy, A, Arnould, C, Chaillou, E, Désiré, L, Duvaux-Ponter, C, Greiveldinger, L, Leterrier, C, Richard, S, Roussel, S, Saint-Dizier, H, Meunier-Salaün, MC, Valance, D and Veissier, I 2007a Emotions and cognition: a new approach to animal welfare. Animal Welfare 16: 37–43Google Scholar
Boissy, A, Manteuffel, G, Jensen, MB, Moe, RO, Spruijt, B, Keeling, LJ, Winckler, C, Forkman, B, Dimitrov, I, Langbein, J, Bakken, M, Veissier, I and Aubert, A 2007b Assessment of positive emotions in animals to improve their welfare. Physiology and Behavior 92: 375–397CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Broom, DM 1997 Welfare evaluation. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 54: 21–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colborn, DR, Thompson, DL Jr, Roth, TL, Capehart, JS and White, KL 1991 Responses of cortisol and prolactin to sexual excitement and stress in stallions and geldings. Journal of Animal Sciences 69: 2556–2562Google ScholarPubMed
Coulon, M, Deputte, BL, Heyman, Y and Baudoin, C 2009 Individual recognition in domestic cattle (Bos taurus): evidence from 2D images of heads from different breeds. PLoS ONE 4: e4441CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dantzer, R 1988 Les Emotions. Presses Universitaires de France: Paris, FranceGoogle Scholar
Dantzer, R 2002 Can farm animal welfare be understood without taking into account the issues of emotion and cognition? Journal of Animal Science 80: E1–E9Google Scholar
Dawkins, MS 1983 La Souffrance Animale. Editions du Point Vétérinaire: Maisons-Alfort, FranceGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, MS 2001 How can we recognise and assess good welfare? In: Broom, DM (ed) Coping with Challenge: Welfare in Animals Including Humans pp 63–76. Dahlem University Press: Berlin, GermanyGoogle Scholar
Désiré, L, Boissy, A and Veissier, I 2002 Emotions in farm animals: a new approach to animal welfare in applied ethology. Behavioural Processes 60: 165–180CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Désiré, L, Veissier, I, Després, G and Boissy, A 2004 On the way to assess emotions in animals: do lambs evaluate an event through its suddenness, novelty or unpredictability? Journal of Comparative Psychology 118: 363–374CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Désiré, L, Veissier, I, Després, G, Delval, E, Toporenko, G and Boissy, A 2006 Appraisal process in sheep: interactive effect of suddenness and unfamiliarity on cardiac and behavioural responses. Journal of Comparative Psychology 120: 280–287CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekman, P, Friesen, WV and Ellsworth, P 1972 Emotion in the Human Face: Guidelines for Research and a Review of Findings. Pergamon Press: New York, USAGoogle Scholar
Fraser, D and Duncan, IJH 1998 ‘Pleasures’, ‘pains’ and animal welfare: toward a natural history of affect. Animal Welfare 7: 383–396Google Scholar
Fridlund, AJ 1994 Facial expression and the methods of contemporary evolutionary research. In: Fridlund, AJ (ed) Human Facial Expression: an Evolutionary View pp 28–54. US Academic Press: San Diego, USACrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greiveldinger, L, Veissier, I and Boissy, A 2007 Emotional experiences in sheep: predictability of a sudden event lowers subsequent emotional responses. Physiology and Behavior 92: 675–683CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greiveldinger, L, Veissier, I and Boissy, A 2009 Behavioural and physiological responses of lambs to controllable versus uncontrollable aversive events. Psychoneuroendocrinology 34: 805–814CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greiveldinger, L, Veissier, I and Boissy, A 2010 The ability of lambs to form expectations and the emotional consequences of a discrepancy from their expectations. Psychoneuroendocrinology doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2010.11.02CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, S and Wehrle, T 2001 Facial expressions as indicators of appraisal processes. In: Scherer, KR, Schorr, A and Johnstone, T (eds) Appraisal Processes in Emotion: Theory, Methods, Research pp 285–300. Oxford University Press: New York, USAGoogle Scholar
Kendrick, KM, da Costa, AP, Leigh, AE, Hinton, MR and Peirce, JW 2001 Sheep don't forget a face. Nature 414: 165–166CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Manteuffel, G 2006 Positive emotions of animals: problems and chances of scientifically grounded welfare-improvement. Aktuelle Arbeiten zur artgemäßen Tierhaltung, KTBL-Schrift 448Google Scholar
Mason, JW 1971 A re-evaluation of the concept of ‘non-specificity’ in stress theory. Journal of Psychiatry Research 8: 323–333CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nickel, R, Schummer, A and Seiferle, E 1968 Lehrbuch der Anatomie der Haustiere, Volume 1. Paul Parey Verlag: Berlin, Germany. [Title translation: Handbook of anatomy of domestic animals]Google Scholar
Quaranta, A, Siniscalchi, M and Vallortigara, G 2007 Asymmetric tail-wagging responses by dogs to different emotive stimuli. Current Biology 17: 199–201CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reefmann, N, Bütikofer Kaszàs, F, Wechsler, B and Gygax, L 2009 Ear and tail postures as indicators of emotional valence in sheep. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 118: 199–207CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sander, D, Grandjean, D and Scherer, KR 2005 A systems approach to appraisal mechanisms in emotion: emotion and brain. Neural Networks 18: 317–352CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scherer, KR 1999 Appraisal theories. In: Dalgleish, T and Power, M (eds) Handbook of Cognition and Emotion pp 637–663. Wiley: Chichester, UKGoogle Scholar
Scherer, KR, Shorr, A and Johnstone, T 2001 Appraisal Processes in Emotion: Theory, Methods, Research. Oxford University Press: Canary, NC, USAGoogle Scholar
Schmied, C, Waiblinger, S, Scharl, T, Leisch, F and Boivin, X 2008 Stroking of different body regions by a human: effects on behaviour and heart rate of dairy cows. Applied Animal Behavioural Sciences 09: 25–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veissier, I, Boissy, A, Désiré, L and Greiveldinger, L 2009 Animals’ emotions: studies in sheep using appraisal theories. Animal Welfare 18: 347–354Google Scholar
Wager, TD, Phan, KL, Liberzon, I and Taylor, SF 2003 Valence, gender, and lateralization of functional brain anatomy in emotion: a meta-analysis of findings from neuroimaging. NeuroImage 19: 513–531CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wemelsfelder, F 2001 The inside and outside aspects of consciousness: complementary approaches to the study of animal emotion. Animal Welfare 10: 129–139Google Scholar
Wickham, SL, Collins, T, Barnes, AL, Beatty, DT, Miller, D, Stockman, C and Fleming, PA 2009 Qualitative behavioural assessment of sheep naïve and habituated to transport. In: Hausberger, M (ed) Proceedings of the 31st International Ethological Conference pp 455–456. Rennes University, Rennes, FranceGoogle Scholar