Behavioural-type coping strategies in leisure dromedary camels: factors determining reactive vs. proactive responses

Abstract

Domestic animals use a varied set of strategies (behavioural- and physiological-type) to cope with aversive situations at rearing systems. Camels, although widely used as an animal model for the study of strategies to cope with heat stress and dehydration in desert-type natural habitats, remain disregarded for their coping styles in response to social stressors at man-made environments, in which they are progressively gaining presence for their sustainability traits. In this scenario, the present paper has explored the concept of coping with social stressors from a behavioral perspective in leisure dromedary camels kept at human-driven settings. By means of a multivariate statistical analysis, those animal-dependent factors that exert significant influence (p<0.05) on the type of behavioural-type coping styles (proactivity and reactivity) displayed by leisure dromedaries in response to social stressors at man-made environments have been identified. Negative reinforcement strategies, together with the use of a combination of visual and auditory stimuli, favor the proactivity in leisure dromedaries. On behalf of their condition as social species, the presence of congeners also promotes proactive coping behaviour. Sexual hormones and selection make male dromedaries more proactive as age increases, whereas this condition enhances reactivity coping responses in females. Hence, training protocols are recommended to be initiated at the earliest ages possible to reduce the probability of undesired reactivity as the animal grows and to encourage proactive attitudes as quickly as possible in females and males, respectively. However, the castration of the animals once sexual maturity is reached and domestication protocols for their functional aptitude are initiated, will stimulate not only general organic development but also proactive behaviour. With reference to body language signals, the more backward the ears are, the greater the proactivity of the camel is expected. The present results will make possible the tailoring of training protocols for leisure camels to improve the safety of human-camel interaction, valorize camels for new potential niches (i.e., assisted therapy), and enhance the list of breeding criteria for behavioral traits in these animals.