Hand-rearing reduces fear of humans in European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris.

ABSTRACT: Pending changes in European legislation ban the use of wild-caught animals in research. This change is partly justified on the assumption that captive-breeding (or hand-rearing) increases welfare of captive animals because these practices result in animals with reduced fear of humans. However, there are few actual data on the long-term behavioural effects of captive-breeding in non-domestic species, and these are urgently needed in order to understand the welfare and scientific consequences of adopting this practice. We compared the response of hand-reared and wild-caught starlings to the presence of a human in the laboratory. During human presence, all birds increased their general locomotor activity but the wild-caught birds moved away from the human and were less active than the hand-re

SUBMITTER: Feenders G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3045461 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature