iBet uBet web content aggregator. Adding the entire web to your favor.
iBet uBet web content aggregator. Adding the entire web to your favor.



Link to original content: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36939369
Measurement of voluntary bite forces in large carnivores using a semi-automated reward-driven system - PubMed Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr 1;226(7):jeb245255.
doi: 10.1242/jeb.245255. Epub 2023 Apr 4.

Measurement of voluntary bite forces in large carnivores using a semi-automated reward-driven system

Arie van der Meijden  1 , Julio César González-Gómez  2   3 , María D Pulido-Osorio  4 , Anthony Herrel  5
Affiliations

Measurement of voluntary bite forces in large carnivores using a semi-automated reward-driven system

Arie van der Meijden et al. J Exp Biol. .

Abstract

Bite force is a key performance trait of the feeding system, but maximal in vivo bite force has been measured in few large mammals. The alternative, modelling of bite force from anatomy, cannot be validated without in vivo measurements. To overcome existing limitations of ethics, safety and animal well-being, we propose a semi-automated method to obtain voluntary maximum bite forces from large mammals using bite plates that automatically dispense a food reward if an incrementally increasing threshold force value is reached. We validated our method using two Malayan sun bears, two Andean spectacled bears and a lioness. We show that voluntary bite force measurement using positive reinforcement is a non-invasive and reliable method to record maximum voluntary bite force performance in large mammals. Our results further show that in vivo data are critical as modeling efforts from osteology have greatly underestimated bite forces in Andean spectacled bears.

Keywords: Biting; Carnivora; Environmental enrichment; Feeding.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests The authors declare no competing or financial interests.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources