Working hard, not hardly working
- Katrina R.
- 18. Juli 2021
- 3 Min. Lesezeit
Picture 1: Dwarf goat using a fence to get a better view of its surroundings. ©Yves Wiesmann
Goats are willing to work for a treat (so-called contrafreeloading), even if they can get a similar treat for free. If farm animals are motivated to work and “earn” their food, allowing them to perform this behaviour can have positive welfare implications. What is contrafreeloading and what is it good for? Contrafreeloading (CFL) is the phenomenon when animals work for a resource although an identical resource is available for free. The reasons why animals show this behaviour are still under debate, but possible explanations are that animals are motivated to have some form of control over their environments. Goats are very curious animals, always looking for ways to entertain themselves and things to explore (Picture 1). However, the commercial housing systems they usually live in is often barren and doesn’t allow to express this need for stimulation or possibilities to control the surroundings. Therefore, providing tasks to satisfy this motivation within a farm setting might improve animal welfare. Do goats work for a reward or do they prefer to get it for free? A new study now sheds light on the contrafreeloading phenomenon in goats. Dairy and dwarf goats were provided with the choice between feeding for free from an open door, or opening a sliding door for a food item of similar value (Picture 2). The authors assumed that goats that are motivated to work for food will approach the closed door more often and faster than the open door. Indeed, goats were not only highly motivated to participate in the experiment in order to get a reward, but they also chose to work for it in the presence of an identical free reward. In total, 53 of 57 goats chose to feed from the closed door in at least one of 10 times when they had the choice, but variation between individuals was large.
Picture 3: Dairy goat pushing the sliding door open to access the reward. © Katrina Rosenberger
Dwarf and dairy goats were equally interested in working for food.
Both, dwarf and dairy were willing to work for the reward and opened the sliding door (Picture 3). However, dwarf goats were more cautious to approach the closed door than dairy goats. A possible explanation for this might be that dwarf goats were generally more fearful of novel items and environments and therefore initially preferred to choose the less risky option (i.e. the open door). We know already that fear behaviour has been reduced by domestication and selection for high productivity (Lindqvist and Jensen 2009), which might explain why dairy goats, been bred for high milk yield for decades, approached the closed door sooner than dwarf goats.
Although dwarf and dairy goats were motivated to work for food, only dairy goats approached the closed door faster than the open one. Again: It is likely that dwarf goats were simply too fearful to approach the closed door as fast as dairy goats.
We already know that solving a task successfully can induce positive emotions in farm animals (Langbein et al. 2004, Puppe et al. 2007). As goats have repeatedly chosen to work during the study, it is possible that the performance of opening the sliding door was somehow rewarding for them.
So, farm animals seem to be motivated to earn their food. But what kind of implications does this motivation have regarding their welfare?
The study sheds more light on the needs of farm animals, which are usually kept in barren environments with little stimulation, to actively engage with their environment. The fact that animals are motivated to work for food is further stressing the need for the provision of cognitive challenges to enrich animal housing and improve the welfare of farm animals.
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