Anne Kathrine Akre defended her PhD thesis on April 30th 2010

Ane Gro Siri Skjelfjord

The role of social and physical environments on behaviour in silver fox (Vulpes vulpes) vixens and female mice (C57/BL/6J)

The primary focus of this thesis was to examine how various aspects of the social and physical environment affect behaviour and social preferences in farmed silver fox vixens. Traditionally, adult farmed foxes are housed singly in wire mesh cages furnished with a resting platform, activity objects and a nest box or other forms of furnishing in which the animals can seek shelter. It is frequently suggested that animals should be housed together in order to increase their opportunity to perform species-specific behaviour and more locomotor and exploratory behaviour. However, social housing brings with it the risk of increased aggression due to competition for present and future resources. To further illuminate the effects of environmental factors on social behaviour in captive animals, laboratory mice were used as a model. The results showed that young silver fox cubs preferred to seek social contact with other cubs, and that familiarity did not affect the amount of time they spent in front of other cubs. However, the cubs had a tendency to play more in front of unfamiliar cubs compared to familiar cubs, showing that the motives for seeking contact with other cubs were non-aggressive and possibly play related. At the age of six months, the vixens did not show clear preferences for a familiar or unfamiliar vixen, but more aggression was directed towards the unfamiliar vixens suggesting an increased competitive motivation at this age. Furthermore, we found that social status affected the sub-adult vixens' behaviour and preference towards other vixens in a choice test arena. Our finding suggests that a low status female seems to avoid high status females, but no such avoidance of a particular social partner was seen in the high status vixens. In addition, it was demonstrated in both vixens and laboratory mice that there exists competition for access to limited resources. Therefore, valuable resources given to these animals when they are socially housed should be evenly distributed and provided in sufficient numbers. The results from this thesis showed that factors such as familiarity, age and social status, as well as the physical environment in terms of resource distribution, are important to consider in order to provide an environment with minimal level of competition.

Updated: 03.05.10
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