Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM)

The pig was placed alone inside a novel arena. The arena was enriched with novel stimuli presented in four boxes:

Rooting box - Box filled with tennis balls and some pellets

Water box - Box filled with 10 cm of water

Odor box - Box with Lemon peel, Star anise, Allspice, Cardamom and Clove

Upside down box - Box placed upside down

This part of the assessment studies the pig's motivation to explore and investigate its environment.

The pig was introduced to a large black ball 75 cm in diameter. The ball was thrown into the arena in a standardised matter. This test follows immediately after the novel arena test while the pig is still in the test arena.

This part of the assessment studies the pig's behaviour under increased stress.

The pig is returned to its home pen and littermates.

This part of the assessment studies the social support effect of companionship after a stressful experience.

The following seven behaviours were included in a Factor Analysis:

Latency to explore the novel arena - make first snout-contact with a box

Latency to explore all four boxes - make snout-contact with all boxes

Latency to explore the novel object - make snout-contact with the black ball

Number of contact bouts with the novel object - snout-contacts with the black ball

Latency to reexplore the novel arena - make snout-contact with a box after introduction of the novel object

Number of escape attempts - jumping at or pushing with force against the gate during the novel arena and novel object test

Latency to lay down - lay down in the social support test