THE INTERPRETATION OF EMOTIONS IN SMALL RUMINANTS
type: CreativeWork
description: Ensuring that animals have a life worth living means not only reducing their exposure to stressful and/or negative situations, but above all ensuring that they can experience predominantly positive affective states and emotions. The aim of this thesis was to improve human knowledge of how small ruminants (goats, Capra hircus, and sheep, Ovis aries) express emotions, with a particular focus on the acoustic features of vocalisations that can be used as animal-based indicators of the affective states of these animals. To pursue this goal, a multidisciplinary approach was adopted in this thesis, ranging from the study of the direct perception and interpretation of vocalisations by humans to the use of traditional acoustic analysis to decipher the emotional content of vocalisations, through the extraction of acoustic features and the application of statistical models, and their practical application for the development of up-to-date Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technologies. The general introduction of the thesis provided an overview of the state of the art of research on small ruminant emotions and included a review paper on the topic of human-goat relationship. In fact, in farmed animals like sheep and goats, the quality of the human-animal relationship (HAR) depends on the emotional connotations of the interactions that occur between the two parties. The review focused on how humans and goats communicate, which factors influence this relationship, which methods are available to measure it, and how it can be improved. The review showed that certain interspecies communication channels, particularly the acoustic ones, have received little attention so far, and highlighted the importance of early, frequent and positive interactions with goats to improve HAR, and the role of some socio-demographic variables, such as gender, in influencing behaviour and attitude towards these animals. The review also highlighted the poor feasibility of the validated measures available …
abstract: Ensuring that animals have a life worth living means not only reducing their exposure to stressful and/or negative situations, but above all ensuring that they can experience predominantly positive affective states and emotions. The aim of this thesis was to improve human knowledge of how small ruminants (goats, Capra hircus, and sheep, Ovis aries) express emotions, with a particular focus on the acoustic features of vocalisations that can be used as animal-based indicators of the affective states of these animals. To pursue this goal, a multidisciplinary approach was adopted in this thesis, ranging from the study of the direct perception and interpretation of vocalisations by humans to the use of traditional acoustic analysis to decipher the emotional content of vocalisations, through the extraction of acoustic features and the application of statistical models, and their practical application for the development of up-to-date Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technologies. The general introduction of the thesis provided an overview of the state of the art of research on small ruminant emotions and included a review paper on the topic of human-goat relationship. In fact, in farmed animals like sheep and goats, the quality of the human-animal relationship (HAR) depends on the emotional connotations of the interactions that occur between the two parties. The review focused on how humans and goats communicate, which factors influence this relationship, which methods are available to measure it, and how it can be improved. The review showed that certain interspecies communication channels, particularly the acoustic ones, have received little attention so far, and highlighted the importance of early, frequent and positive interactions with goats to improve HAR, and the role of some socio-demographic variables, such as gender, in influencing behaviour and attitude towards these animals. The review also highlighted the poor feasibility of the validated measures available …
author: CELOZZI, STEFANIA
language: eng
keywords: animal welfare, affective state, small ruminant, human-animal relationship, Settore AGRI-09/C - Zootecnia speciale
date published: 2024-12-16
date modified: 2026-07-27T20:18:48Z
provider: Università degli Studi di Milano
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Università degli Studi di Milano

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/1122696

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.13130/celozzi-stefania_phd2024-12-16