Ethology

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  • Create Date Ekim 8, 2022
  • Last Updated Ocak 9, 2023

INTRODUCTION
The observation of animal behaviour has always been the subject of studies and insights by many researchers who, by observing animals, try to discover their behaviours and characteristics.
The founding father of this discipline is recognized by all to be Konrad Lorenz1, an Austrian zoologist who devoted many years of his life to the study of animal behaviour. For a breeder or for a technician who provides advice on a farm, it is essential to have an in-depth knowledge of the characteristics of an animal.
In a period in which animal welfare becomes an increasingly topical subject due to the criticism that intensive farming receives from public opinion and from consumer, talking about a topic such as animal ethology becomes fundamental.
In fact, it is only through the knowledge and study of the animal that management techniques can be implemented on the farm that allow the animal to be able to express the behaviour of the species, one of the 5 freedoms indicated in the Brambell Report of 1965.
The animal is a sentient being, or an individual capable of experiencing sensations. We human beings have a responsibility when we bring them up: to make them experience positive sensations and a right present. In fact, animals live identified in the present, they do not have a conception of the past, they remember only by reliving what they feel in the present and they do not even have a chance to create an image of the future that is an exclusive prerogative of man. In order to work on this right present, it is therefore essential for us to know how a bovine sees or what kind of hearing a pig has. Or it is equally important to know that the sheep is a grazer that differs from a goat that prefers shrub pastures completely different from those needed by the sheep as a grazer. The knowledge of ethology therefore lays the foundations for making an animal feel good which, deprived of the stress that it can feel when living in conditions not suitable for it, grows without getting sick and improves its production performance and consequently increases the profitability for the breeder.
In this chapter, was therefore consider some of the main ethological characteristics of cattle, pigs, sheep and goats, trying to create a more realistic image of the animals mentioned that can help breeders and technicians in their daily work.

e-Module Editors
Candan Karakurt-Turkey
Dr. Bumin Emre Teke-Turkey
Dr. Bülent Bülbül-Turkey
e-Module Authors (by surname order)
Dr. Bülent Bülbül-Turkey
María de los Angeles Catalán Balmaseda-Spain
Dr. Antonio Compagnoni-Italy
Candan Karakurt-Turkey
Halil İbrahim Kınalı-Turkey
Begoña Lozano Diéguez-Spain
Alicia Martín Garcia de la Torre-Spain
Nicola Louise Noble -UK
Dr. Fatih Özdemir-Turkey
Dr. Gonzalo Palomo-Spain
Phil Stocker-UK
Mehmet Şenarslan-Turkey
Dr. Bumin Emre Teke-Turkey
Marcello Volanti-Italy


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