Fear and Anxiety in Cats – Insights from Cat Behavior Studies
Explore the occurrence of fear and anxiety in various cat breeds through owner assessments. Discover insights on neophobia and resistance to being held firmly in cats.
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The Cat Behaviour and Welfare 12. Fear and anxiety in cats Bjarne O. Braastad Professor of Ethology Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, NMBU, s, Norway The Cat - Behaviour and Welfare - Bjarne O. Braastad 0 Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Cat breed codes in figures The European Easy-Mind System (EMS) is used as breed codes in the following figures. EMS codes are used internationally by FIFe, the European Cat Fancier Society (F d ration Internationale F line). EMS Code ABY Breed name Abyssinian Bengal Bristish Shorthair Burmese Cornish Rex Devon Rex Housecat Shorthair (true EMS code is HCS) Housecat Longhair (true EMS code is HCL) Egyptian Mau Maine Coon Norwegian Forest Cat Oriental breeds (Balinese, Oriental Shorthair, Oriental Longhair, Seychellois Shorthair) No. per breed 21 BEN 18 BRI 29 BUR 16 CRX 12 DRX 13 HK 410 HL 287 MAU 20 MCO 80 NFO 48 ORI 25 PER 18 Persian Ragdoll Sacred Birman Siamese Siberian RAG 45 SBI 41 SIA 17 SIB 37 Total = 17 N =1137 The Cat - Behaviour and Welfare - Bjarne O. Braastad Norwegian University of Life Sciences 1
Fear of unfamiliar dogs or cats Occurrence of the behaviour trait in 17 cat breeds. The Y axis shows score averages (M SE) on a 1-5 scale based on owner assessments. 1= Never, 2 = Seldom, 3= Now and then, 4 = Often, 5 = Always. The number above the breed code shows number of cats in the analysis. 5 Kruskal-Wallis test, P<0.0001 4.5 4 3.5 Mean +/- SE 3 2.5 mean 2 1.5 1 19 14 19 12 8 8 357 258 13 62 35 19 14 35 37 12 26 ABY BEN BRI BUR CRX DRX HK HL MAU MCO NFO ORI PER RAG SBI SIA SIB (Eriksen, 2014, Behavioural characteristics of pedigree cats in Norway. MSc thesis, Norwegian University of Life Sciences) The Cat - Behaviour and Welfare - Bjarne O. Braastad Norwegian University of Life Sciences 2
Resistance to being held firmly Occurrence of the behaviour trait in 17 cat breeds. The Y axis shows score averages (M SE) on a 1-5 scale based on owner assessments. 1= Never, 2 = Seldom, 3= Now and then, 4 = Often, 5 = Always. The number above the breed code shows number of cats in the analysis. 5 Kruskal-Wallis, P<0.0001 4.5 4 3.5 Mean +/- SE 3 2.5 2 1.5 mean 1 21 18 29 16 12 13 407 285 20 80 48 25 18 45 41 17 37 ABY BEN BRI BUR CRX DRX HK HL MAU MCO NFO ORI PER RAG SBI SIA SIB (Eriksen, 2014, Behavioural characteristics of pedigree cats in Norway. MSc thesis, Norwegian University of Life Sciences) The Cat - Behaviour and Welfare - Bjarne O. Braastad Norwegian University of Life Sciences 3
Neophobia fear of the unknown Occurrence of the behaviour trait in 17 cat breeds. The Y axis shows score averages (M SE) on a 1-5 scale based on owner assessments. 1= Never, 2 = Seldom, 3= Now and then, 4 = Often, 5 = Always. The number above the breed code shows number of cats in the analysis. 5 Kruskal-Wallis, P = 0.0013 4.5 4 3.5 Mean +/- SE 3 2.5 2 mean 1.5 1 21 18 29 16 11 13 407 285 20 80 47 24 18 44 41 17 35 ABY BEN BRI BUR CRX DRX HK HL MAU MCO NFO ORI PER RAG SBI SIA SIB (Eriksen, 2014, Behavioural characteristics of pedigree cats in Norway. MSc thesis, Norwegian University of Life Sciences) The Cat - Behaviour and Welfare - Bjarne O. Braastad Norwegian University of Life Sciences 4
Fear responses, unknown reason (staring, freezing , etc.) Occurrence of the behaviour trait in 17 cat breeds. The Y axis shows score averages (M SE) on a 1-5 scale based on owner assessments. 1= Never, 2 = Seldom, 3= Now and then, 4 = Often, 5 = Always. The number above the breed code shows number of cats in the analysis. 5 Kruskal-Wallis, P = 0.0008 4.5 4 3.5 Mean +/- SE 3 2.5 2 mean 1.5 1 21 18 29 16 12 13 409 285 20 80 48 25 18 45 41 17 37 ABY BEN BRI BUR CRX DRX HK HL MAU MCO NFO ORI PER RAG SBI SIA SIB (Eriksen, 2014, Behavioural characteristics of pedigree cats in Norway. MSc thesis, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, s) The Cat - Behaviour and Welfare - Bjarne O. Braastad Norwegian University of Life Sciences 5
Fear and anxiety measures Fear: Habituation (may also include desensitization see below) Counter-conditioning = conditioning a strong positive stimulus to the unconditioned negative stimulus Anxiety/phobias (conditioned fear): Desensitization = gradually get used to the situation which creates anxiety by rewarding the mastering of small successive steps, rewarding initial step before requiring the next step, etc. Stair model The Cat - Behaviour and Welfare - Bjarne O. Braastad Norges milj - og biovitenskapelige universitet 6
More on cats behaviour and welfare is found here (in Norwegian) www.braastad.info Braastad s website on ethology, animal welfare, cats and human animal relationship www.facebook.com/KattenAtferdVelferd Facebook (Meta) site for the Norwegian cat book www.etologi.no website for the Norwegian Association of Ethologists www.etologi-dyrevelferd.no website on ethology and animal welfare for secondary schools www.animalpickings.com popular scientific website for the Research Group on Ethology and Animal Environment at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences The Cat - Behaviour and Welfare - Bjarne O. Braastad Norwegian University of Life Sciences 7
Thank you for listening to Bjarne. He believes that he understands me. But we have our secrets that no ethologist yet knows about. The Cat - Behaviour and Welfare - Bjarne O. Braastad Norwegian University of Life Sciences 8
