Anticipatory behaviour refers to the behaviours an animal exhibits when the animal prepares for a predictable event. This is a well validated measure of Animal Welfare for many species.
In the video below, the capybaras are getting excited as they anticipate the arrival of their dinner. It is just after 4 PM which is the time their dinner often arrives.
A low level of Anticipatory Behaviour is usually a positive sign, as this shows that the animal is looking forward to an upcoming event. However, high or excessive levels of Anticipatory Behaviour indicate a lack of stimulation in the animals’ environment (known as “Reward Sensitivity Theory”).
The fewer positive events there are in an animal’s day, the more the animal will become fixated on an event.
To use Anticipatory Behaviour as an indication of welfare we need to understand what would be considered a low-level of Anticipatory Behaviour and what would be considered an excessive level of Anticipatory Behaviour.
To solve this problem a study looked at the thresholds for anticipatory behaviour in dolphins and correlated the levels of anticipatory behaviour with “cognitive bias” results. Cognitive Bias is a measure of optimistic or pessimistic decisions, as well as overall welfare. The results with dolphins suggest that if they perform anticipatory behaviour for more than about 20% of the time they may be experiencing a more negative mental state. If they exhibit anticipatory behaviour less than 10% of the time this probably indicates a positive mental state. If they exhibit anticipatory behaviour more than 16% of the time this indicated that the dolphin was feeling less than positive about life.
Further research needs to be done on different species and also on different groups of dolphins, in order to define the thresholds of Anticipatory Behaviour which correlate with positive or negative mental states for the animals.
Additionally, different measures of Animal Welfare need to be tested and compared, for each group or species, in order to understand what the levels of Anticipatory Behaviour indicate.
Anticipatory behaviour is also linked to Abnormal Repetitive Behaviour, known as Stereotypies.
Hinase and Zabon both exhibited extended periods of Abnormal Repetitive Behaviour, rubbing their noses up and down on the gate to the separate enclosure where the breeding male capybara lived, in this case Toku. They were extremely frustrated at not being able to be with him.
You can see Hinase’s stress behaviour in this video:
Capybara Stress Behaviour Stereotypies Abnormal Repetitive Behaviour Hinase
This repetitive behaviour where Hinase rubs her nose up and down repeatedly for long periods of time is indicative of stress. The scientific name for this behaviour is Stereotypies or Abnormal Repetitive Behaviour (A R B). Hinase was number one in the hierarchy at Nagasaki Bio Park. She was a seven-year-old female capybara at the time this video was made. The breeding male, Toku, is kept in a separate enclosure in order to control breeding. Hinase is very frustrated that she cannot be with Toku. Her frustration makes her more aggressive towards some of the other capybaras in the herd, particularly Butter who is at the bottom of the hierarchy. The capybaras which Hinase’s most aggressive to appear to be junior capybaras who do not behave in a suitably submissive way. Many of the capybaras become alert when Hinase approaches, ready to move away if they sense she will be aggressive towards them. Butter sometimes seems oblivious to Hinase’s presence and occasionally even tries to share Hinase’s food trough. Hinase will only share her food trough with her own offspring or, less frequently, her best friend Momiji, who is number two in the hierarchy.
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