ArticleAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI2023
Natural Behaviour Is Not Enough: Farm Animal Welfare Needs Modern Answers to Tinbergen's Four Questions.
Article in Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Restricting laying hens' litter access leads to a rebound effect in wing flapping and dust bathing behavior.Poultry science · 2026Article
- Quality of life framework in poultry: a methodological approach to characterize the behavior of chickens reared under free-range conditions.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- A Study on Light Preference in Gilts via Behavioral Pattern Analysis.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Comparative Analysis of the Growth, Physiological Responses, and Gene Expression of Chinese Soft-Shelled Turtles Cultured in Different Modes.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- A Practical Approach to Providing Environmental Enrichment to Pigs and Broiler Chickens Housed in Intensive Systems.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite the many scientific objections that have been raise to it, 'natural behaviour' is widely used as an indication of good welfare by the food industry. The supposed link between welfare and natural behaviour derives, however, from a now outdated view of animals becoming frustrated if they cannot perform their natural instinctive behaviour. On the 60th anniversary of its publication, Niko Tinbergens' Four Questions framework is used to show why there is no necessary link between natural behaviour and welfare and why, therefore, reliance on natural behaviour in commercial farming may not result in the claimed improvements in welfare. Used on its own without supporting evidence, 'natural behaviour' lacks the most essential criterion for good welfare-
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.