Dr. agr. Christian Nawroth

Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN)
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

  • 2017-present: Post Doc, Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) Dummerstorf
  • 2015-2017: Postdoctoral Fellow, Queen Mary University London
  • 2010-2015: Doctoral student, Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg; Doctoral thesis 'Farm Animal Cognition - Physico- and Socio-cognitive Capabilities of Ungulate Livestock.'
  • 2009: Diploma in Biology, University of Würzburg

Publications

Nawroth, C.; Langbein, J.; Coulon, M.; Gabor, V.; Oesterwind, S.; Benz-Schwarzburg, J.; von Borell, E. (2019):
Farm animal cognition: Linking behaviour, welfare and ethics. Front Vet Sci 6: 24, 1-16
https://doi.org/doi: 10.3389/fvets.2019.00024
Baciadonna, L.; Nawroth, C.; Briefer, E. F.; McElligott, A. F. (2019):
Perceptual lateralization of vocal stimuli in goats. Curr Zool 65 (1): 67-74
https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoy022
Baciadonna, L.; Düpjan, S.; Briefer, E. F.; Padilla de la Torre, M.; Nawroth, C. (2018):
Looking on the bright side of livestock emotions - the potential of their transmission to promote positive welfare. Front Vet Sci 5: 218, 1-6
https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2018.00218
Ebersbach, M.; Nawroth, C. (2018):
Shape but not color facillitates two-year-olds' search performance in a spatial rotation task. Infancy 23 (6): 820-832
https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12259
Langbein, J.; Krause, A.; Nawroth, C. (2018):
Human-directed behaviour in goats is not affected by short-term positive handling. ANIM COGN 21: 795-803
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-018-1211-1
Nawroth, C.; Albuquerque, N.; Savalli, C.; Single, M.S.; McElligott, A.G. (2018):
Goats prefer positive human emotional facial expressions. Roy Soc Open Sci 5: 180491, 1-8
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180491
Burla, J.-B.; Siegwart, J.; Nawroth, C. (2018):
Human demonstration does not facilitate the performance of horses (Equus caballus) in a spatial problem-solving task. Animals 8 (6): 96, 1-8
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani8060096
Cauchoix, M.; Chow, P.; Van Horik, J.; Atance, C.; Barbeau, E.; ..., ; Langbein, J.; ..., ; Nawroth, C.; Oesterwind, S.; ..., (2018):
The repeatability of cognitive performance: a meta-analysis. Philos T R Soc B 373 (1756): 20170281, 1-13
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0281
Nawroth, C.; Langbein, J.; Puppe, B. (2018):
Swine Cognition. In: Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior (J. Vonk, T. K. Shackelford, Hrsg.) Springer International Publishing, Cham (ISBN 978-3-319-47829-6, https://doi.org/10.1007/97): 1-8
Baruzzi, C.; Nawroth, C.; McElligott, A. G.; Baciadonna, L. (2018):
Motor asymmetry in goats during a stepping task. Laterality 23 (5): 599-609
https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2017.1417993
Nawroth, C.; Prentice, P. M.; McElligott, A. G. (2017):
Individual personality differences in goats predict their performance in visual learning and non-associative cognitive tasks. Behav. Processes 34: 43-53
Nawroth, C.; McElligott, A. G. (2017):
Human head orientation and eye visibility as indicators of attention for goats (Capra hircus). PeerJ 5: e3073
Nawroth, C.; Deléglise, T.; McElligott, A. G. (2017):
Ziegen (Capra hircus) zeigen spontan "einsichtiges" Problemlösungsverhalten, aber kein Verständnis für kausale Zusammenhänge. In: Aktuelle Arbeiten zur artgemäßen Tierhaltung 2017: Vorträge anlässlich der 49. Internationalen Arbeitstagung "Angewandte Ethologie bei Nutztieren" der DVG vom 23.-25.11.2017 in Freiburg/Breisgau (KTBL-Schrift , 513) KTBL, Darmstadt (978-3-945088-53-1): 28-37"
Nawroth, C.; Langbein, J. (2017):
Taking livestock psychology back to the barn : commentary on Marino and Allen (2017), the psychology of cows. Animal Behavior and Cognition 4 (4): 519-521
https://dx.doi.org/10.26451/abc.04.04.12.2017
Nawroth, C.; Trincas, E.; Favaro, L. (2017):
African penguins follow the gaze direction of conspecifics. PeerJ 5: e3459, 1-11
https://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3459
Nawroth, C. (2017):
Socio-cognitive capacities of goats and their impact on human-animal interactions. Small Ruminant Res 150: 70-75
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smallrumres.2017.03.005
Nawroth, C.; Ebersbach, M.; Von Borell, E. (2016):
Are domestic pigs (Sus scrofa domestica) able to use complex human-given cues to find a hidden reward? Anim. Welfare 25: 185-190
Nawroth, C.; Brett, J. M.; McElligott, A. G. (2016):
Goats display audience-dependent human-directed gazing behaviour in a problem-solving task. Biol. Lett. 12: 20160283
Nawroth, C.; Borell, E. v.; Langbein, J. (2016):
‘Goats that stare at men’—revisited: do dwarf goats alter their behaviour in response to eye visibility and head direction of a human? Anim Cogn 19: 667-672
Nawroth, C.; Baciadonna, L.; McElligott, A. G. (2016):
Goats learn socially from humans in a spatial problem-solving task. Anim. Behav. 121: 123-129