Once bitten, twice shy: Aggressive and defeated pigs begin agonistic encounters with more negative emotions.

ABSTRACT: Aggression between unfamiliar commercial pigs is common and likely invokes strong emotions in contestants. Furthermore, contest outcomes affect subsequent aggressive behaviour, suggesting a potential lasting influence on affective state. Here we used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the emotional expression of pigs in agonistic encounters. We investigated how recent victory or defeat influences emotions expressed in a subsequent contest, and the role of aggressiveness as a personality trait in emotional expression. We observed the pre-escalation contest behaviour (second contest; age 13 wks) in animals of different aggressiveness (categorised using two resident intruder tests as Agg+ or Agg-, age 9 wks), which had recently won or lost a contest (first contest

SUBMITTER: Oldham L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8593554 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature