Why don’t all animals demonstrate a stereotypical behavior?

There are two types of animals: proactive animals and passive animals (Ijichi et al., 2013).

Proactive Animals: 

Individuals that will always try to control their environment and internal state (Ijichi et al., 2013). If the animal is feeling stressed, the animal will try to decrease their stress by performing coping mechanisms that are linked to stereotypies (Ijichi et al., 2013). Moreover, proactive individuals utilize a positive feedback loop to release Dopamine in their body by performing certain behaviors, including stereotypies. In other words, the more the behavior is performed the more rewarded the animal will be.

 

Passive Individuals: 

Passive individuals  will accept the affective state and environment in which there are in and will not attempt to decrease their stress level (Ijichi et al., 2013).

Relation to Welfare: 

This points out the limits of stereotypies as being an indicator of poor welfare, in fact, if an animal is a passive animal then absence of stereotypies does not necessarily mean that the animal is in a good welfare state.