Dr. agr. Christian Nawroth
Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN)
Working Group Animal Behaviour & Welfare
Wilhelm-Stahl-Allee 2
18196 Dummerstorf
Germany
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
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 Research 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?
Animal Welfare 25 (2): 185-190
Nawroth, C.; Brett, J. M.; McElligott, A. G. (2016):
Goats display audience-dependent human-directed gazing behaviour in a problem-solving task
Biology Letters 12 (7): 20160283, 1-4
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0283
Nawroth, C.; Baciadonna, L.; McElligott, A. G. (2016):
Goats learn socially from humans in a spatial problem-solving task
Animal Behaviour 121: 123-129
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.09.004
Ebersbach, M.; Nawroth, C. (2016):
The Effects of Visual Discriminability and Rotation Angle on 30-Month-Olds’ Search Performance in Spatial Rotation Tasks
Frontiers in Psychology 7: 1648, 1-7
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01648
Baciadonna, L.; Nawroth, C.; McElligott, A. G. (2016):
Judgement bias in goats (Capra hircus): investigating the effects of human grooming
PeerJ 4: e2485, 1-18
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2485
Nawroth, C.; von Borell, E.; Langbein, J. (2016):
'Goats that stare at men' - revisited: do dwarf goats alter their behaviour in response to eye visibility and head direction of human?
Animal Cognition 19 (3): 667-672
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10071-016-0957-6
Nawroth, C.; von Borell, E. (2015):
Domestic pigs’ (Sus scrofa domestica) use of direct and indirect visual and auditory cues in an object choice task
Animal Cognition 18: 757-766
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-015-0842-8
Benz-Schwarzburg, J.; Nawroth, C. (2015):
Know your pork - Or better don't: Debating animal minds in the context of the meat paradox
Know Your Food: Food ethics and innovation (Dumitras, D. E.; Jitea, I. M.; Aerts, S.; Hrsg.) Wageningen Academic (978-90-8686-813-1): 233-240
https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-813-1_34
Nawroth, C.; von Borell, E.; Langbein, J. (2015):
Object permanence in the dwarf goat (Capra aegagrus hircus): Perseveration errors and the tracking of complex movements of hidden objects
Applied Animal Behaviour Science 167: 20-26
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2015.03.010
Nawroth, C.; von Borell, E.; Langbein, J. (2015):
‘Goats that stare at men’: dwarf goats alter their behaviour in response to human head orientation, but do not spontaneously use head direction as a cue in a food-related context
Animal Cognition 18: 65-73
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0777-5
Nawroth, C.; von Borell, E.; Langbein, J. (2014):
Exclusion performance in dwarf goats (Capra aegagrus hircus) and sheep (Ovis orientalis aries). PLOS ONE 9: e93534
Nawroth, C.; Ebersbach, M.; von Borell, E. (2014):
Juvenile domestic pigs (Sus scrofa domestica) use human-given cues in an object choice task. Animal Cognition 17: 701-713
Nawroth, C.; Ebersbach, M.; von Borell, E. (2013):
Are juvenile domestic pigs (Sus scrofa domestica) sensitive to the attentive states of humans? - The impact of impulsivity on choice behaviour. Behav. Processes 96: 53-58
Nawroth, C.; Ebersbach, M.; von Borell, E. (2013):
A note on pigs’ knowledge of hidden objects. Archives Animal Breeding 56: 861-872
Haun, D. B. M.; Nawroth, C.; Call, J. (2011):
Great Apes' Risk-Taking Strategies in a Decision Making Task. PLoS ONE 6: e28801