Understanding animal behaviour key to success

"We need to understand this and not to adapt animals to our system, we need to design a management system around the animals, which is not necessarily from the point of animal welfare, but more efficient It is to do it in a way. "

This is the opinion of Dr. Mark Rutter of Harper Adams University. He has recently been promoted to the reader for a strong track record of animal behavior.

This position represents the appointment of a senior scholar who has an excellent international reputation for research or scholarship. As a reader of applied animal behavior, Dr. Rutter's research will focus on how to use farm animals behavioral research to develop more efficient and sustainable livestock systems.

Rutter says that: "We need to find ways to make farm animals express natural behavior patterns, one is to use technology, not only for high-density systems but also for various technology systems currently under development, They are not designed to make them denser, they are designed to increase their efficiency. "

"One of the things an animal can cherish is the ability to control the environment. In an experiment conducted by my supervisor, Priya Motupalli, the cow can be placed outside of a small parcel or meadow Continuously supplied 6 kg of milk

"I think that part because they graze outdoors, so the whole will eat more but I also think that raising the production level is not too stressful, at that time it was It is no longer a dominant cattle, it is an experience of fear. "

"I think that my future role is to improve the efficiency of the system taking into account the behavioral patterns of animals.You can develop a system by considering behavior, genetic background, animal incarnation, evolutionary history Sustainability

He commented. "This is not only sustainable enhancement but also about sustainability.How do you use technology to meet the individual needs of animals?

"As agriculture intensifies, people tend to stretch the average about average animals, but my early research showed that even regular animals will change during the day."

It is easy to understand this principle from the analogy of animal behavior. If you want to understand the behavior of foreign animals, you plan to observe animals in the wild, not the zoo. A user survey method out of context such as interviews and moderate usability tests is like visiting the zoo. In contrast, technologies like field survey are like safari parks. Through field survey, you can observe real actions: rather than listening to what they say or seeing them take action, rather than seeking people's true behavior in certain situations You can see. In a nutshell, you went where the action took place.

In behavioralism, the main goal is to observe human behavior and physical changes in natural or experimental situations occurring in humans and animals. Activists try to understand human behavior, not their own personality. Modern psychologists believe that this indicates that the environment not only affects human beings but also changes in the human environment. Therefore, behaviorists indicate that humans are controlled from the outside. This is how people

Research on the behavior of animals leads to deeper and broader understanding of human psychology. Research on animal behavior brought about many discoveries about human behavior, such as classical conditioning studies by Ivan Pavlov and Harry Harlow and rhesus monkeys. Since many psychologists are studying animals to gain insight into human development, they can understand human behavior without researching humans for moral and moral reasons . This also limits the types of research they can use for humans. They also found that you can control the animal's environment and animals can reach their age sooner. Harlow conducted research / experiments on the youthfulness of rhesus macaques that separate mothers and mothers at birth. And he wanted to show the importance of mother's love for a healthy childhood.