Validation of behavioural tests for #personality assessment in tie-stall dairy cows

The study of animal personality has gained increasing attention in recent years, as researchers recognize that non-human animals exhibit stable individual differences in behaviour. In dairy cattle, understanding personality traits holds potential for improving animal welfare, enhancing management practices, and supporting productivity outcomes. However, validating the behavioural tests used to assess these traits remains a significant challenge. The present study aimed to evaluate the consistency and validity of five commonly used behavioural tests in dairy cows: the Human Approach Test (HAT), Sudden Test (SUD), Novel Object Test (NOT), Open Field Test (OFT), and Novel Surface Test (NST). These tests were chosen for their potential to assess personality dimensions that parallel components of human personality, particularly Openness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Agreeableness. Repeated assessments were conducted across three time periods to evaluate both intra-test (temporal) and inter-test (contextual) consistency. Results revealed that only the SUD exhibited significant behavioural consistency across all periods, suggesting its potential as a reliable tool for personality assessment. Additionally, a moderate correlation between the HAT and SUD was observed, indicating that these tests may capture overlapping personality traits. In contrast, the remaining tests (NOT, OFT, NST) lacked consistent behavioural patterns over time and across contexts, raising questions about their reliability and the complexity of trait expression. These findings highlight the challenges of identifying stable personality traits in cattle and emphasize the need for more rigorous validation of behavioural tests. This research contributes to the growing field of animal personality by providing insights into trait stability, the limitations of current testing methods, and the potential application of personality assessment in future livestock management practices.

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All Silhouette Images on PhyloPic

Browse all the free silhouette images in PhyloPic.

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Graceful Deer Hopping at Sunset

ALT: Graceful Deer Hopping at Sunset

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Spatial learning: the #birds and the bees do it differently

Publication date: October 2026 Source: Animal Behaviour, Volume 240 Author(s): J. Godard, M.C. Tello-Ramos, T.A. Hurly, A.B. Barron, S.D. Healy

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The building blocks of social structure: simulating constraints of social network analysis for inference about group-level properties

The interdisciplinary usage of Social Network Analysis (SNA) means that, when researchers calculate global network metrics, the research interest can range from the ultimate ecological and evolutionary pressures that select for specific group-level structures or the proximate mechanisms by which those structures emerge. Despite major methodological advances, social structures measured via SNA metrics are rarely connected to the underlying forces shaped by latent individual dispositions, ecological constraints, and their interplay with group-level affordances. We build a model to simulate fission-fusion spatial association data from a specified set of parameters in order to address the "black box" of animal SNA. We broke down animal social systems into three building blocks: individual dispositions, external factors, and the social structure that emerges. Each of these building blocks was represented by one or more model parameters, which together describe a set of underlying processes that lead to different measurable features of animal social structure, which we quantified with commonly used global network metrics within an SNA framework (e.g., clustering coefficient, density, modularity). In doing so, our model directly links global network metrics to the underlying behavioural processes that generate them and demonstrates how global network metrics can be influenced by changes to their underlying behavioural processes. Holding all other parameters constant, we find that subtle changes to 1) demography (i.e., group size) and ecology (i.e., size and variability of foraging parties), 2) variation of individual behaviour and related observation bias, 3) imposed group sub-structures, and 4) observation effort, affect all network metrics calculated non-linearly and in some cases non-monotonically. Our findings indicate that failure to account for the underlying behavioural processes can bias inference drawn from SNA. This model and conceptual framework provide a novel tool with which to begin opening the black box of SNA and to systematically address the evolution of diverse group-level social structures.

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Contributions of Positive Social Interactions to Vocal Learning and Social Cohesion

Birdsong produced in non-breeding flocks is shaped by a dynamic interplay between intrinsic reward and social feedback. Studies in cowbirds and starlings suggest that positive affective states and op...

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Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology - Stanford University, California, United States

The Department of Biology at Stanford University seeks applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology. A successful candidate will conduct research that asks fundamental que...

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Do Cuttlefish Dream of Electric Shrimp? A Natural History Note on Behavioral Quiescence Strategies in Wild European Cuttlefish (<fi>Sepia officinalis</fi>)

Continuous video stills documenting an unprovoked alert-to-quiescent-to-alert transition sequence in an individual wild Sepia officinalis. Panels (A–B) show the individual exhibiting localized arm L1...

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Redirecting

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Urban Bats: City Lovers or Refugees?

Hypothetical relationship between urbanisation intensity and bat species population persistence framed through a species refuge concept. Moderately urbanised landscapes may function as temporal refug...

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Consistent Intra‐Individual Seed Preferences, Yet No Dietary Conservatism in a Granivorous Songbird

Canaries show stable seed preferences over time, but do not initially exhibit dietary conservatism when encountering a novel seed and readily consume it. With repeated experience, however, they begin...

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Animal Social Network Structures Across the Fast‐Slow Continuum

Using a mathematical model, we examine how the rate of demographic replacement (represented by generation time) influences emergent social network structure in natural populations. By considering a r...

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Antipredatory Strategies of Anurans: An Updated Conceptual Review

To unravel the evolutionary dynamics of predator–prey interactions, we propose an updated, three-tiered classification of anuran antipredatory strategies. By mapping non-behavioral, individual, and g...

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