Abstract
Given that domestication provided animals with more stable environmental conditions, artificial selection by humans has likely affected animals' ability to learn novel contingencies and their ability to adapt to changing environments. In addition, the selection for specific traits in domestic animals might have an additional impact on subjects' behavioural flexibility, but also their general learning performance, due to a re-allocation of resources towards parameters of productivity. To test whether animals bred for high productivity would experience a shift towards lower learning performance, we compared the performance of dwarf goats (not selected for production, 15 subjects) and dairy goats (selected for high milk yield, 18 subjects) in a visual discrimination learning and reversal learning task. Goats were tested individually in a test compartment and were rewarded by choosing either a white or a black cup presented by the experimenter on a sliding board behind a crate. Once they reached a designated learning criterion in the initial learning task, they were transferred to the reversal learning task. To increase the heterogeneity of our test sample, data was collected by two experimenters at two research stations following a similar protocol. Goats of both selection lines did not differ in the initial discrimination learning task in contrast to the subsequent reversal learning task. Dairy goats reached the learning criterion slower compared to dwarf goats (dairy goats = 9.18 sessions; dwarf goats = 7.74 sessions; P = 0.016). Our results may indicate that the selection for milk production might have affected behavioural flexibility in goats. These differences in adapting to changing environmental stimuli might have an impact on animal welfare e.g., when subjects have to adapt to new environments or changes in housing and management routines.
Highlights
Another factor with the potential to impact behavioural flexibility, or learning ability in general, Learning in Goats is artificial selection by humans, either by means of domestication (Price, 1999; Lindqvist and Jensen, 2009) or subsequent selection for specific production traits (Dudde et al, 2018). These differences can be of relevance in the context of various welfarerelated issues in farm animals, such as adaptation to new environments or changes in housing and management routines, but remain relatively unexplored
To increase the heterogeneity of our sample, data was collected by two researchers at two research sites (Agroscope Tänikon in Ettenhausen, Switzerland, and the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology in Dummerstorf, Germany) (Voelkl et al, 2018, 2020). 18 non-lactating female Nigerian dwarf goats and 18 non-lactating female dairy goats (Ettenhausen: 339 ± 12.4 d, Dummerstorf: ∼396 d at start of the initial visual discrimination task) participated in the experiment, that consisted of a visual discrimination task and a subsequent reversal learning task
To determine how selection for high productivity impacts general learning capacity and behavioural flexibility, we investigated the ability of dwarf and dairy goats to solve a visual discrimination and a subsequent reversal learning task
Summary
Animals need to flexibly adapt to their environment (Shettleworth, 2010). Behavioural flexibility refers to the adaptive change in the behaviour of an animal, e.g., an animal’s ability to learn a reversed learning contingency Another factor with the potential to impact behavioural flexibility, or learning ability in general, Learning in Goats is artificial selection by humans, either by means of domestication (Price, 1999; Lindqvist and Jensen, 2009) or subsequent selection for specific production traits (Dudde et al, 2018). These differences can be of relevance in the context of various welfarerelated issues in farm animals, such as adaptation to new environments or changes in housing and management routines, but remain relatively unexplored. By using learning and reversal learning tasks, one can measure the general ability of an individual to learn, and how flexible it can adapt its learned response
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