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Details for Professor Michael Mendl

Personal details
Name Professor Michael Mendl
Job title Professor of Animal Behaviour and Welfare
Department Farm Animal Science University of Bristol
Contact details This expert can be contacted via the University of Bristol Public Relations Office.

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work+44 (0)117 331 8092
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Qualifications M.A., Ph.D.(Cantab.), BA (Hons)
Professional details
Keywords cognition
emotion
social behaviour
domestic animals
animals
animal welfare
pig cognition
tail-biting in pigs
Areas of expertise My current research interests are in the study of cognition, emotion, and social behaviour in domestic animals, with a view to using this information to improve animal welfare.

Together with Dr Liz Paul, I am developing a novel approach to the assessment of animal emotions (‘cognitive bias’) which draws on theory and findings from human psychology and cognitive neuroscience. In this area, we collaborate with psychologists, behavioural ecologists, mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists, psychopharmacologists, and neuroendocrinologists.

I also work on more applied animal welfare issues, with a current interest in the causation and development of tail-biting in pigs, and the relationship between housing and husbandry procedures and the health and welfare of farm and laboratory animals.
Media experience Our work has received considerable media attention including articles in the Times, Guardian, Independent, Financial Times; interviews on national and international radio; TV documentaries; presentations at the British Association Festival of Science and Bristol Festival of Ideas; requests to advise TV and film makers.