Evidence for Individual Differences in Behaviour and for Behavioural Syndromes in Adult Shelter Cats.

ABSTRACT: Consistent inter-individual differences in behaviour have been previously reported in adult shelter cats. In this study, we aimed to assess whether repeatable individual differences in behaviours exhibited by shelter cats in different situations were interrelated, forming behavioural syndromes. We tested 31 adult cats in five different behavioural tests, repeated three times each: a struggle test where an experimenter restrained the cat, a separation/confinement test where the cat spent 2 min in a pet carrier, a mouse test where the cat was presented with a live mouse in a jar, and two tests where the cat reacted to an unfamiliar human who remained either passive or actively approached the cat. Individual differences in behaviour were consistent (repeatable) across repeated trials for each

SUBMITTER: Martinez-Byer S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7341514 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature