| dc.description.abstract | Training laboratory animals to voluntarily cooperate with husbandry and medical procedures can significantly reduce the level of stress these animals experience during these procedures. Habituation to humans and human handling is often a first step in training protocols. It is known in rabbits and rats that habituation to humans can reduce the fearfulness towards humans, which facilitates training. Currently, very little is known about behavioural habituation in guinea pigs. Thus, the objective of this explorative study was to see whether behavioural habituation towards human presence inside the cage could be observed in Dunkin Hartley guinea pigs.
For this aim five Dunkin Hartley guinea pigs (used for educational purposes) were habituated to the presence of a human inside their cage over the course of three weeks. Daily habituation sessions were performed from Monday through Friday, where an observer was present inside the cage for 10-20 minutes. Behaviour shown during the first ten minutes of the first habituation session of the week were scored from video material using focal animal sampling. The behaviours scored were active locomotor behaviour, grooming behaviour, animal-human interaction, ingestive behaviour, comfort behaviour, the amount of time spent inside or outside shelter and other locomotor behaviour. The percentage of total time spent in a certain behaviour and the latency to first display a behaviour were used in the statistical analyses.
The percentage of total time spent in ingestive behaviour was different between habituation sessions, but post-hoc analyses could not establish where the exact differences took place. No further significant statistical effects could be found. However, the percentage of total time spent underneath shelter and in other locomotive behaviour, as well as the latency to first leave shelter, showed a trend for a difference.
This explorative study implies that behavioural habituation to the presence of a human inside the cage can be observed in Dunkin Hartley guinea pigs. Behaviours of interest are ingestive behaviour, other locomotive behaviour, specifically freezing and startling, and the amount of time spent inside or outside shelter. More research will be needed to determine the exact changes in behaviour and a possible reduction in fearfulness towards humans. | |
