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Related Experiment Videos

Do domestic pigs in controlled environments contrafreeload?

Robert J Young1, Alistair B Lawrence

  • 1Genetics and Behavioural Sciences Department, SAC-Edinburgh, Scotland. robyoung@pucminas.br

Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science : JAAWS
|February 18, 2004
PubMed
Summary

Pigs did not show significant "contrafreeloading," working for food when identical food was freely available. This suggests appetitive behaviors may not be as strong a driver for enrichment as previously thought.

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Area of Science:

  • Applied Ethology
  • Animal Behavior

Background:

  • Animals often work for food despite free access, suggesting a need for appetitive behavior.
  • This phenomenon, known as contrafreeloading, has implications for captive animal enrichment.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate contrafreeloading in pigs under different operant schedules.
  • To determine if unpredictability (variable ratio) influences the drive to work for food.

Main Methods:

  • Six pigs were housed in controlled environments with continuous access to both operant food and identical free food.
  • Pigs were tested under fixed ratio (FR) 5 and variable ratio (VR) 5 schedules.

Main Results:

  • Pigs exhibited negligible contrafreeloading behavior (mean proportion = 0.05 +/- 0.01).

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  • No significant differences in contrafreeloading were observed between FR and VR schedules.

    • Conclusions:

    • Pigs do not strongly exhibit contrafreeloading, challenging the assumption that appetitive behavior is a primary driver for enrichment.
    • Unpredictability in reinforcement schedules did not increase contrafreeloading in this study.