Understanding behaviour: the relevance of ethological approaches in laboratory animal science

Applied ethology has traditionally focused on farm animal species, whereas there has been much less research directed at understanding the behaviour of laboratory animals in relation to their use as models in research. In this paper, we identify four areas in which ethological approaches could help improve the welfare of laboratory rodents while at the same time enhancing the validity of research based on them. These areas are: (1) the effects of selective breeding and gene manipulations on the animals’ ability to cope with the laboratory environment; (2) the effects of barren housing conditions on behaviour and the mechanisms underlying normal control of behaviour; (3) the sensory perception of the laboratory environment by the animals; and (4) the applicability of standard behavioural tests and the potential for improving them by taking animals’ species-specific characteristics into account. Given the current increase in the use of rodents in the life sciences, these four areas represent promising areas of future research in applied animal behaviour science.