The effect of animal shelter sound on cat behaviour and welfare
department or school: Land and Food Systems, Faculty of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Eagan, Bailey Hope
issued: 2020-08-31T19:29:25Z
issued: 2020
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: This study assessed how sound in an animal shelter affects cat behaviour. Singly housed cats (n=98) were observed over 5 months. Fear-related and maintenance-related behaviour were recorded for 30-minute periods on weekdays (AM 10:00-10:30, PM 20:00-20:30) or weekends (AM 7:00-7:30, PM 19:00-19:30) daily from admittance for 10 days or until removed. Cats observed both AM and PM on 2 or more weekdays were used for analysis (n=70). Behaviour, plus presence of sound (classified by the source), was recorded using instantaneous and one-zero sampling with 15-second intervals. Each 30-minute observation period was classified as “quiet” or “loud” if the sound was above or below (respectively) the median for all periods at the same time of day. Data were analyzed by non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for differences in behaviour between AM and PM periods. Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to test differences between age groups, source of cats, and Asilomar Accords. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to test differences in fear and maintenance behaviour between males and females. Cats varied widely in the amount of fear and maintenance behaviour they performed. Some spent all their observed time in fear behaviour (especially hiding) and no maintenance behaviour, while others showed no fear behaviour and spent up to 25% of observation intervals in maintenance behaviours. AM periods consistently had much more sound than PM. Cats showed more fear behaviour (p<0.001), and less maintenance behaviour (p<0.020) in AM than PM periods. Males showed less fear (p=0.003) and maintenance (p=0.035) behaviour than females. Cats showed more fear behaviour in loud AM than quiet AM periods (p=0.001) but no comparable difference was seen in maintenance behaviour (p=0.501). Where sessions included a pronounced change in sound level, fear-related behaviour was more common after a transition from quiet to loud (p=0.002, Wilcoxon signed ranks test) and tended to be less common after a transition fr…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/75779
note: i THE EFFECT OF ANIMAL SHELTER SOUND ON CAT BEHAVIOUR AND WELFARE by Bailey Hope Eagan B.Sc., Queen’s University, 2013 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE in The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (Applied Animal Biology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2020 © Bailey Hope Eagan, 2020 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: THE EFFECT OF ANIMAL SHELTER SOUND ON CAT BEHAVIOUR AND WELFARE Submitted by Bailey Eagan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Applied Animal Biology Examining Committee: Dr. David Fraser, University of British Columbia Animal Welfare Program Supervisor Dr. Daniel Weary, University of British Columbia Animal Welfare Program Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Emilia Gordon, The British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Siyun Wang, University of British Columbia Food Safety Engineering Additional Examiner iii Abstract This study assessed how sound in an animal shelter affects cat behaviour. Singly housed cats (n=98) were observed over 5 months. Fear-related and maintenance-related behaviour were recorded for 30-minute periods on weekdays (AM 10:00-10:30, PM 20:00-20:30) or weekends (AM 7:00-7:30, PM 19:00-19:30) daily from admittance for 10 days or until removed. Cats observed both AM and PM on 2 or more weekdays were used for analysis (n=70). Behaviour, plus presence of sound (classified by the source), was recorded using instantaneous and one-zero sampling with 15-second intervals. Each 30-minute observation period was classified as “quiet” or “loud” if the sound was above or below (respectively) the median for all periods at the same time of day. Data were analyzed by non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for differences i…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2020-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0394098
language: eng
degree discipline: Applied Animal Biology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/75779