Dr. agr. Christian Nawroth
Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN)
Working Group Animal Behaviour & Welfare
Wilhelm-Stahl-Allee 2
18196 Dummerstorf
Working Group Animal Behaviour & Welfare
Wilhelm-Stahl-Allee 2
18196 Dummerstorf
Research interests
I am interested in how animals perceive and interact with their physical and social environment. In particular, my research focuses on the cognitive capacities of farm (goats, horses, pigs, sheep) and zoo animals (great apes, penguins) and how this knowledge can ultimately be used to improve their management conditions and human-animal interactions.
- Animal Cognition
- Human-Animal Interactions
- Animal Welfare Science
- Animal Ethics
Curriculum Vitae
- 2025-present: Senior scientist, FBN Dummerstorf, Germany
- 2017-2025: Post Doc, FBN Dummerstorf, Germany
- 2015-2017: Postdoctoral Fellow, Queen Mary University London, UK
- 2010-2015: Doctoral student, Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
Doctoral thesis: Farm Animal Cognition - Physico- and Socio-cognitive Capabilities of Ungulate Livestock - 2009: Diploma in Biology, University of Würzburg, Germany
Publications
Brucks, D.; Nawroth, C. (2026):
The Use of Human Social Cues in Domestic Farm Animals
Pointing - Culture, Development, and Evolution (Krause, M. A.; Bard, K. A.; Leavens, D. A.; Hrsg.) Cambridge University Press (978-1-009-44569-6): 389-408
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009445696.025
Sánchez-Amaro, A.; Ebel van Wijk, S. J.; Molenaar, C.; et al. (2026):
EVApeCognition: An 18-Year Dataset of Great Ape Cognition
Scientific Data 13: 805, 1-14
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-07191-6
Watson, S. K.; Nawroth, C.; McElligott, A. G.; Rossano, F.; Townsend, S. W. (2026):
Domestic goats can follow the direction of human voices to solve a hidden-object task
Royal Society Open Science 13 (6): 260097, 1-11
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.260097
Seressia, J.; Morel, A.; Cornilleau, F.; Lemarchand, J.; Lansade, L.; Nawroth, C.; Calandreau, L.; Ferreira, V. H. B. (2026):
Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) selected for high social motivation rely on conspecifics for buffering but not learning in sociocognitive tasks
PLoS One 21 (5): e0344407, 1-21
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0344407
Deutsch, J.; Lebing, S.; Eggert, A.; Nawroth, C. (2026):
Goats who stare at wolves - identifying natural response stimuli for an affect-driven attention bias test in small ruminants
Applied Animal Behaviour Science 300: 106989, 1-9
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2026.106989
Nawroth, C.; Gray, H.; Olsson, I. A. S. (2026):
Exploring open science in applied ethology: practice and attitudes among researchers
BMC Research Notes 19: 97, 1-8
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-026-07685-x
Deutsch, J.; Langbein, J.; Nawroth, C. (2025):
Learning and cognition in goats
Small Ruminant Welfare, Production and Sustainability (Kannan, G.; Hrsg.) Elsevier (978-0-443-22201-6): 291-309
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-22201-6.00012-8
Stocker, T.; Nawroth, C.; Puppe, B.; Erhard, M.; Louton, H. (2025):
A gentling program decreases fear-related behaviour towards humans but not towards novel objects in broiler chickens
Applied Animal Behaviour Science 290: 106710, 1-9
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106710
Pahl, A.; Rault, J. L.; McGetrick, J.; Eggert, A.; Nawroth, C.; Langbein, J. (2025):
Do goats exhibit prosocial motivation? Insights from a novel food-giving paradigm
Royal Society Open Science 12: 250556, 1-12
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.250556
Stuhlträger, J.; von Borell, E.; Langbein, J.; Nawroth, C.; Rorvang, M. V.; Raoult, C. M. C. (2025):
Visual perception in farmed ungulates and implications for their welfare
Frontiers in Animal Science 5: 1433181, 1-17
https://doi.org/10.3389/fanim.2024.1433181
Zobel, G.; Whittaker Neave, H.; Nawroth, C. (2024):
Goats’ Natural Behaviour
The Welfare of Goats (Mattiello, S.; Battini, M.; Hrsg.) Springer Nature (978-3-031-62181-9): 21-75
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-62182-6_2
Williams, E.; Sandler, J.; Rutter, S. M.; Mancini, C.; Nawroth, C.; Neary, J. M.; Ward, S. J.; Charlton, G.; Beaver, A. (2024):
Human-animal interactions and machine-animal interactions in animals under human care: A summary of stakeholder and researcher perceptions and future directions
Animal Welfare 33: e27, 1-10
https://doi.org/10.1017/awf.2024.23
Deutsch, J.; Lebing, S.; Eggert, A.; Nawroth, C. (2024):
Goats who stare at video screens – assessing behavioural responses of goats towards images of familiar and unfamiliar con- and heterospecifics
Peer Community Journal 4: e94, 1-18
https://doi.org/10.24072/pcjournal.473
Alessandroni, N.; Altschul, D.; Baumgartner, H. A.; Bazhydai, M.; Brosnan, S. F.; Byers-Heinlein, K.; Call, J.; Chittka, L.; Elsherif, M.; Espinosa, J.; Freeman, M. S.; Gjoneska, B.; Güntürkün, O.; Huber, L.; Krasheninnikova, A.; Mazza, V.; Miller, R.; Moreau, D.; Nawroth, C.; Pronizius, E.; Ruiz-Fernández, S.; Schwing, R.; Šlipogor, V.; Visser, I.; Vonk, J.; Yeager, J.; Zettersten, M.; Prétôt, L. (2024):
Challenges and Promises of Big Team Comparative Cognition
Nature Human Behaviour 9: 240-242
https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5nykg
Baciadonna, L.; Castellano Bueno, J.; Elliott, V.; Nawroth, C. (2024):
Welfare impacts cognition: Taking individual welfare into account in comparative cognition research
Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews 19: 3-7
https://doi.org/10.3819/CCBR.2024.190016
Alessandroni, N.; Altschul, D.; Bazhydai, M.; Byers-Heinlein, K.; Elsherif, M.; Gjoneska, B.; Huber, L.; Mazza, V.; Miller, R.; Nawroth, C.; Pronizius, E.; Qadri, M. A. J.; Šlipogor, V.; Soderstrom, M.; Stevens, J. R.; Visser, I.; Williams, M.; Zettersten, M.; Prétôt, L. (2024):
Comparative Cognition Needs Big Team Science: How Large-Scale Collaborations Will Unlock the Future of the Field
Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews 19: 67-72
https://doi.org/10.3819/CCBR.2024.190001
Nawroth, C.; Wiesmann, K.; Schlup, P.; Keil, N.; Langbein, J. (2023):
Domestication and breeding objective did not shape the interpretation of physical and social cues in goats (Capra hircus)
Scientific Reports 13: 19098, 1-10
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-46373-9
Wilson, V. A. D.; Bethell, E. J.; Nawroth, C. (2023):
Editorial: Using gaze to study social knowledge: current challenges and future directions
Frontiers in Psychology 14: 1225626, 1-2
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1225626
Wilson, V.A.D.; Bethell, E.; Nawroth, C. (2023):
The use of gaze to study cognition: limitations, solutions, and applications to animal welfare
Frontiers in Psychology 14: 1147278, 1-10
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1147278
Tajanor, K.; Gonzalez-Ronquillo, M.; Relling, A.; Nordquist, R. E.; Nawroth, C.; Vargas-Bello-Perez, E. (2023):
Toward assessing the role of dietary fatty acids in lamb's neurological and cognitive development
Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10: 1081141, 1-11
https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2023.1081141