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All Outputs (9)

Housing and Environmental Enrichment of the Domestic Ferret: A Multi-Sector Survey (2022)
Journal Article
Dancer, A. M., Díez-León, M., Bizley, J. K., & Burn, C. C. (2022). Housing and Environmental Enrichment of the Domestic Ferret: A Multi-Sector Survey. Animals, 12, Article 1065. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12091065

Ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) are kept and used in multiple sectors of society, but little is known about how they are housed and what environmental enrichment (EE) they may benefit from. We aimed to help guide caretakers about what housing and EE... Read More about Housing and Environmental Enrichment of the Domestic Ferret: A Multi-Sector Survey.

Neurophysiological correlates of stereotypic behaviour in a model carnivore species (2019)
Journal Article
Diez-Leon, M., Kitchenham, L., Duprey, R., Bailey, C. D. C., Choleris, E., Lewis, M., & Mason, G. (2019). Neurophysiological correlates of stereotypic behaviour in a model carnivore species. Behavioural Brain Research, 373, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2019.112056

Stereotypic behaviour (SB) is common in animals housed in farm, zoo or laboratory conditions, including captive Carnivora (e.g. wild ursids and felids). Neurobiological data on housing-induced SBs come from four species (macaques, two rodent species,... Read More about Neurophysiological correlates of stereotypic behaviour in a model carnivore species.

Environmentally enriching American mink (Neovison vison) increases lymphoid organ weight and skeletal symmetry, and reveals differences between two sub-types of stereotypic behaviour (2016)
Journal Article
Diez-Leon, M., Bursian, S., Galicia, D., Napolitano, A., Palme, R., & Mason, G. (2016). Environmentally enriching American mink (Neovison vison) increases lymphoid organ weight and skeletal symmetry, and reveals differences between two sub-types of stereotypic behaviour. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 177, 59-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2015.12.002

Effects of environmental enrichment on aspects of maternal behavior, and infant growth and mortality, in American mink (Neovison vison) (2016)
Journal Article
Diez-Leon, M., & Mason, G. (2016). Effects of environmental enrichment on aspects of maternal behavior, and infant growth and mortality, in American mink (Neovison vison). Zoo Biology, 35(1), 19-28. https://doi.org/10.1002/zoo.21249

In several species, stress compromises maternal behaviors that are important for infant viability (e.g. licking and grooming). Understanding how stress in captivity affects maternal behavior could therefore be beneficial, especially for carnivores in... Read More about Effects of environmental enrichment on aspects of maternal behavior, and infant growth and mortality, in American mink (Neovison vison).

Benefits of a ball and chain: simple environmental enrichments improve welfare and reproductive success in farmed American mink (Neovison vison) (2014)
Journal Article
Meagher, R. K., Dallaire, J. A., Campbell, D. L. M., Ross, M., Moller, S. H., Hansen, S. W., Diez-Leon, M., Palme, R., & Mason, G. (2014). Benefits of a ball and chain: simple environmental enrichments improve welfare and reproductive success in farmed American mink (Neovison vison). PLoS ONE, 9(11), e110589. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0110589

Can simple enrichments enhance caged mink welfare? Pilot data from 756 sub-adults spanning three colour-types (strains) identified potentially practical enrichments, and suggested beneficial effects on temperament and fur-chewing. Our main experiment... Read More about Benefits of a ball and chain: simple environmental enrichments improve welfare and reproductive success in farmed American mink (Neovison vison).

Animal welfare science: recent publication trends and future research priorities (2014)
Journal Article
Walker, M., Diez-Leon, M., & Mason, G. (2014). Animal welfare science: recent publication trends and future research priorities. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 27(1), 80-100

Animal welfare science is a young and thriving field. Over the last two decades, the output of scientific publications on welfare has increased by c. 10-15% annually (tripling as a proportion of all science papers logged by ISI’s Web of Science), wit... Read More about Animal welfare science: recent publication trends and future research priorities.