An Introduction to Animal Behaviour by Aubrey Manning & Marian Stamp Dawkins

Author:Aubrey Manning & Marian Stamp Dawkins [Manning, Aubrey]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012-03-26T04:00:00+00:00

Decision-making, motivation and animal welfare

We have so far discussed the mechanisms of decision-making ‘as if’ animals were able to weigh up the different courses of action open to them. We have carefully described motivation and behavioural conflict in terms that are either directly understandable in physiological terms or potentially could be understandable as our knowledge of the complex mechanisms involved becomes greater. We have avoided any discussion of the emotions animals might be experiencing when they show aggression or fear and made it clear that decision-making can be studied without implying that they necessarily understand what they are doing when they weigh up the various options facing them.

There is a good reason for this. The subjective experiences of other animals (or other people for that matter) are not accessible for study in the same way that behaviour and physiology can be studied. So, for much of the twentieth century, they were not studied at all by scientists. Psychology and ethology stuck to what was observable and testable, and that eliminated any discussion of what animals might be feeling. We shall meet similar issues in the next chapter when we discuss questions concerning thought processes in animals in relation to their learning abilities.

Whilst avoiding speculation about subjective experience is, from many points of view, desirable for scientific investigations of animal behaviour, it has had some unfortunate consequences. As more and more people became concerned about animal welfare and the possibility that animals might experience pain and suffering, the study of animal behaviour was contributing less to the debates about animal welfare than it could, and indeed arguably, should have done. Added to this, one of Tinbergen’s four questions, the one about adaptation, consumed far more research attention than the ones about mechanism and development. The enormous excitement generated by sociobiology, behavioural ecology and the revolution in adaptive thinking brought about through a gene-centred approach to evolution left the other questions relatively neglected.

Figure 4.31 Mink are valued for their fur. As active carnivores, wild mink travel over long distances. In small cages, many of their natural behaviours such as swimming are prevented. Fur-farming is now banned in the UK.

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