NEUROSCIENCE, BEHAVIOUR, COGNITIONRESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL FOR THE YEAR 2019-2020Project title: L’apaisement social: effet du nombre de congénères et du sexe chez l’agneau / Social buffering effect in lambs: effect of group size and sex.HOST RESEARCH GROUPName of the group: Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition AnimaleHost institution: Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse; CNRS, UPS, FranceWebsite:http://crca.cbi-toulouse.fr/Name of the group:Eq. Neuroethology& Development of Socioemotional BehavioursHost institution: UMR Physiologie de la Reproduction et des Comportements, Inra Cnrs Ifce Université de ToursINFORMATION ON THE PROJECTShort project description:We are interested in understanding the mechanisms that are linked to the presence of conspecifics to cope with stressful events and how animals recoverfrom them, which is referredto the social buffering effect or social support (Kikusuietal2006,Rault2012). We intend studying how this effect depends upon the number of animals in a group. We will study how the behavioural, physiological and emotional responseswill be affected by the group size in young gregarious animals, i.e. lambs when they are socially isolated. Repetition of isolationover time would allow measuring whether animals habituate to it and to what extent presence of conspecifics interact with this elementary learning process. It has been shown that female lambs are more distressedthan their male counterparts when separated from their mother, showing that change in social milieu of lambs may impact differently males and females(Gaudin et al 2015). We will address how to what extent the individuals’ and collective responses are also dependent upon the sex of individuals.References:Gaudin, S. et al. 2015. Daughters are more strongly attached to their mother than sons: apossible mechanism for early social segregation. AnimalBehaviour102: 33-43.Kikusui T. et al. 2006. Social buffering: relief from stress and anxiety. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 361: 2215–2228Rault J.L. 2012. Friends with benefits: Social support and its relevance forfarm animal welfare. AppliedAnimal Behaviour Science 136: 1-14The field experiments will be conducted from January to beginning of March 2020and data analysisplanned to stop in May 2020 in the case of a French Master internship.This date can be relaxed in the case of students not enrolled in a French degree. Students coming from abroad are encourage to look for grants (e.g. through ERASMUS program).Techniques that will be used by the student:Animals will be videotaped and films analysed using dedicated software to quantify behavior, locomotion. Blood samples will be collected to assess plasmatic glucose and hormones.Background/skills requested:The candidate must be enthusiastic in manipulating relatively large animals in a farm contextlocated in the South of France (Domaine du Merle –Salon de Provence-https://www.montpellier-supagro.fr/domaine-du-merle). The student will have to work with another student to perform all the experiments in the farm.Before
beginning the field work, the students shall be introducedduring at least one week to herding and care to animals. The students will be under the authority of the Director of the Domaine for daily care of animalsin the field station. A heavy task will have to be done in the lab to analyse the collected data. The candidate should have a marked interest in biostatistical analyses.Support: the lab pays the travel costs and the accommodationin the farm.Students enrolled in a Master 2 degree will receive a grant/gratificationduring the 5-months of internshipaccording to the French legislation.RESEARCH SUPERVISOR(S): Names: Richard BONE-mail: richard.bon@univ-tlse3.frElodie CHAILLOU –Raymond NOWAKEmail: elodie.chaillou@inra.fr/ raymond.nowak@inra.fr