ScienceDaily (Nov. 14, 2012) — Wondering if your
caged hamster gets bored? It's highly likely if the critter has nothing to do
all day.
Those
are the findings of University of Guelph researchers in the first research study
to empirically demonstrate boredom in confined animals. The study appears today
in PLOS ONE, published by the Public
Library of Science.
The
study's authors hope the results encourage the development of better housing
systems for captive animals.
"Ideas
about how to assess animal boredom scientifically have been raised before, but
this is really the first time that anyone's done it," said Rebecca
Meagher, a U of G postdoctoral researcher and the study's lead author.
It's
well-established that living in unchanging, inescapable environments induces
boredom in humans, including prisoners who report that they are highly
motivated to seek stimulation.
"But
we cannot rely on verbal self-reports from non-humans, so motivation to obtain
general stimulation must form the basis of any objective measure of boredom in
animals," said Prof. Georgia Mason, who holds the Canada Research Chair in
animal welfare in Guelph's Department of Animal and Poultry Science.
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