A note on stereotyped behaviour in pair and group-housed farmed juvenile raccoon dogs

Farmed fur animals are traditionally housed in cage environment that is often considered as too barren to meet the species-specific needs of these animals. Group housing has been suggested to offer an easy and feasible way to enrich the housing environment of farmed social animal species, including the raccoon dog. Therefore, we assessed the effects of group housing on the behaviour of farmed juvenile raccoon dogs. Farmed raccoon dog litters were housed either traditionally in pairs or in sextets. The space allocation was 0.6 m2 per animal. The present results showed that farmed juvenile raccoon dogs housed in sextets prefer to stay in tight groups all through their growing season. The cubs housed in pairs, although spending less time in active behaviours, performed more stereotyped behaviour especially in August than the sextet-housed cubs. Accordingly, the present finding indicates that group housing creates an enriched farm environment for farmed raccoon dogs and, thus, possibly enhances the welfare of these animals.