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Applied Animal Behaviour Science 61 1998 79–84

Short communication

A note on the effects of an unobstructed view oncage choices in farmed foxes

Jaakko Mononen

)

, Mikko Harri, Juhani Sepponen, Leena Ahola

Uni

ersity of Kuopio, Department of Applied Zoology and Veterinary Medicine, P.O. Box 1627, FIN-70211Kuopio, Finland

Accepted 19 May 1998

Abstract

Ž . Ž . Ž .

Farmed adult female silver foxes

Vulpes

ulpes n

8 and blue foxes

Alopex lagopus

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8 were given the option of a cage with an open view and a cage with a partly obstructedview in a 14-day choice test. Silver foxes spent 61

16% and blue foxes 68

18% of their dailytime in the cage with the open view. This percentage of time differed significantly from the

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chance situation i.e., 50% in both cages in blue foxes

0.05 , but not in silver foxes

Ž .

)

0.05 . Silver foxes spent 67

13%, 81

10% and 65

7% of their active time, and bluefoxes 68

9%, 73

15% and 66

10% of their active time in the cage with the open view in the

early hours, during the work-day and in the evening, respectively difference from 50%:

0.05

. Ž .

for all comparisons . Furthermore, blue foxes spent 73

27%

0.08 and silver foxes

Ž .

21%

0.05 of their resting time in the cage with the open view during the work-day.Blue foxes also spent much of the early hours resting in the cage with the open view. Neitherspecies preferred the cage with the obstructed view to the cage with the open view at any time.Although the preferences were non-exclusive, the present results confirm earlier findings thatobstructing the view affects foxes’ choices.

Keywords:

Silver fox; Blue fox; Fur farming; Preference; Behaviour; Welfare

1. Introduction

Ž . Ž .

Farmed silver foxes

Vulpes

ulpes

and blue foxes

Alopex lagopus

have tradition-

ally been housed in unfurnished wire-mesh cages Commission of the European

Communities, 1990 . In most countries, the cages are situated in open-sided shed housesand are elevated 60–100 cm above the ground. Thus, the view from each cage is open in

)

Corresponding author. Tel.:

358-17-163137; fax:

358-17-163148; e-mail: mononen@uku.fi0168-1591

$ - see front matter

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PII: S0168-1591 98 00180-4

( ) J. Mononen et al.

Applied Animal Beha

iour Science 61 1998 79–84

all directions letting the foxes observe the activities of people working on the farm, aswell as animals in neighbouring cages and shed houses.

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The European Convention 1991 has recommended, that while foxes should have thepossibility to freely observe their environment, they should also have the opportunity toconceal themselves from man and other animals. There is much indirect evidence thatboth silver foxes and blue foxes prefer those areas of their cages from which the view is

least obstructed Harri et al., 1991; Mononen et al., 1993a,b, 1995, 1997, 1998;

Korhonen and Niemela, 1996 . However, there is also some evidence that foxes might

benefit from hiding places: the possibility to hide may reduce stress in farmed silver

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foxes Jeppesen and Pedersen, 1991; Pedersen, 1996 . On the other hand, some attempts

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to provide farmed foxes with hiding places Mononen et al., 1995, 1998 or visually

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isolate the foxes from each other Jeppesen and Pedersen, 1988 have led to situations inwhich the furnishings or other cage structures have severely obstructed the view fromthe cage.In the present study, we assessed the choices of farmed foxes between a cage with avirtually unobstructed view and a cage with a partially obstructed panorama.

2. Materials and methods

Two identical experiments were carried out: one with adult female silver foxes

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8 in May–June and one with adult female blue foxes

8 in June. Prior to theexperiments, the foxes were housed in two-row shed houses, one animal per cage in

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unfurnished standard wire-mesh fox cages measuring 105

115

70 cm W

H .

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The experimental cages consisted of two standard cages Fig. 1 . The fox in this cagesystem could move freely from cage to cage through a 20

20 cm opening close to theceiling of the cages. Wooden ladders helped the foxes to reach the opening. On Days1–7 of the experiment, the view from one of the cages was obstructed with threehardboard walls attached on the wire-mesh walls of the cage, and on Days 8–14, the

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hardboard walls were transferred onto the walls of the other cage Fig. 1 . Thehardboard walls were 45 cm high. Thus, a fox resting in the cage with the opaque wallscould not see out, but could not be seen by most of its neighbours in the experimentalshed house or by man from outside the shed. In contrast, a fox that was sitting, standingor walking could see over the walls if it stretched its neck or stood on its hind legs. Theview from the cage with the wire-mesh walls only was partly obstructed by the walls of the neighbouring cages, but the animal living in that cage could easily view all aroundand was readily seen by other foxes and man.The foxes were fed once a day with fresh ready-mixed feed placed on the roofs of both cages. Water was available ad libitum from an automatic dispenser. The foxescould view normal farm activities, e.g., farm workers occasionally passing by.The behaviour of each animal was video-recorded for 96 h in two 48-h periods; oneperiod during Days 4–7 and once during Days 11–14. The video-system has been

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described by Mononen et al. 1996 . During dark hours, a dim red light was used: one25-W bulb for one double cage. The behaviour of the foxes was analysed from the

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video-tapes by instantaneous sampling Martin and Bateson, 1993 with a 5-min

( ) J. Mononen et al.

Applied Animal Beha

iour Science 61 1998 79–84

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Fig. 1. Schematic drawings of an experimental cage top and the order of the experimental cages and the

position of the opaque walls in the shed house during Days 1–7 and Days 8–14 of the experiment bottom,

. Ž .

view from above . Each animal A–H had free access between the two cage sections.

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sampling interval. The behavioural categories were: 1 active in the cage with opaque

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walls, 2 resting in the cage with opaque walls, 3 active in the cage with transparent

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walls and 4 resting in the cage with transparent walls. Resting included lying whileawake or asleep in a curled up or stretched out posture. All other behavioural patternswere regarded as active behaviours.The results were calculated to percentages of observations or percentages of observa-tions when foxes were active or resting, and are hereafter called ‘percentage of time’ or