Available online 7 May 2015
The relationship between individual behavioural styles, dominance rank and cortisol levels of cats living in urban social groups
Highlights
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- Temperament, dominance and cortisol examined in urban groups of free-roaming cats.
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- Emphasis on boldness using PCA analysis, dominance rank and hair cortisol.
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- Intact females showed higher boldness compared to neutered ones.
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- The more dominant intact females were also shown to have higher cortisol levels.
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- Our results suggest independency of dominance from temperament, and offer welfare implications.
Abstract
Individual
animals show differences in temperament, often correlated with
ecologically important behavioural patterns such as dominance, and with
physiological responses to environmental perturbations, such as cortisol
levels. Identifying these temperaments in animals may reveal adaptive
patterns of behaviour and physiology that could be used to improve their
fitness and welfare in human-controlled environments. We examined the
possible relationship between individual temperaments, social dominance
levels and cortisol levels in regularly fed urban groups of free-roaming
domestic cats (Felis Catus L.) that are routinely subjected to
the Trap-Neuter-Release procedure (TNR). We designed three behavioural
tests that aimed at assessing the cats’ boldness levels and determining
the individual temperaments using a principle component analysis.
Individual social dominance rank was determined from observations of
social encounters before and during feeding. Cortisol levels were
measured from hair samples collected from the cats. Significant
differences were exclusive to females, with the intact females scoring
higher on the boldness factor compared to the neutered females (median
of 0.47 ± 0.981 and -0.168 ± 1.015, respectively, Post-hoc Chi square,
P < 0.05). A positive correlation was found between cortisol levels
and dominance scores in the intact females: the more dominant an
individual intact female was the higher her cortisol level was (n = 14,
Pearson correlation, R2 = 0.592, P < 0.05). No correlation
was found between dominance rank and boldness or between boldness and
food dominance. In summary, our results suggest that in urban cat
feeding groups, where cats are dependent on a regular food source and
where their individual survival does not absolutely depend on their
dominance rank, their social status was independent from their
individual boldness. The differences found in the behavioural tests,
between the neutered and the intact females are probably rooted in
different motivation levels rather than different temperaments.
Keywords
- Free-roaming cats;
- behaviour;
- dominance;
- cortisol;
- boldness;
- motivation
Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.
