Comfort behaviour in animals
Comfort behaviours in animals are activities that help maintain the pelage, feathers, integuement or musculoskeletal system and increase the physical comfort of the animal.
Dust bathing mountain zebra in Namibia
Mother monkey hugs her baby creating contact comfort.
Grooming behaviour of a king cheetah
Squirrel scratching its armpit with its hindlimb claws – a process of autogrooming
Grooming is the art and practice of cleaning and maintaining parts of the body. It is a species-typical behavior.
Summer Morning (at Spadarvet), by Carl Larsson, 1908
Preening male ruff
Mutually grooming ponies at Turf Hill, New Forest, U.K.
A domesticated cat grooming