Human-animal interaction, or anthrozoology is a growing field of interest in research. Evidence of the benefits of human animal interaction in the context of Animal Assisted Therapy and Activities are already plentiful, but more research is needed into uncovering the mechanisms of change. Also a lot of the research is focused on pets and our interaction with our pets since a lot of animal welfare issues can arise from improper human behavior towards animals.
Victor Chitic
PhD
Research
Interests
- Human-Animal Interaction
- Animal Assisted Therapy and Activities
- Animal Behavior
- Animal Welfare
- Ethology
- Education and Learning
Research Projects
-
This research project was developed with my colleagues from the “Dogs for People” Animal Assisted Therapy and Human Animal Interaction Research Center in Bucharest. Students were allowed to interact with therapy dogs one hour before a scheduled exam. An academic anxiety test was administered pre and post interaction with animals. Preliminary results indicate a statistically significant reduction of anxiety, of about 20%. Data analysis is still in progress.
more pictures from the project here
Research Resources
Free research software
Behavioral analysis, coding and sequential analysis
Social Network Analysis
Animal Population Research
Distance – Distance sampling surveys of wildlife populations
Vortex – Population Viability Analysis
ArcGis – Online Mapping Application
Maxent – Species Habitat Modeling
Garp – predict and analyze wild species distributions