It’s well known that living in unchanging, inescapable environments induces boredom in humans, but a new study from the University of Guelph shows that confined animals experience boredom as well.

In order to measure boredom in animals, researchers created a motivation to obtain a general stimulation scenario, to determine whether or not animals also experienced boredom.

Researchers found that animals confined in empty spaces avidly sough stimulation consistent with boredom.

This is the first research of this kind to be published by the Public Library of Science.

“Ideas about how to assess animal boredom scientifically have been raised before, but this is really the first time that anyone’s done it” said Rebecca Meagher, a University of Guelph postdoctoral researcher and the study’s lead author.

The author’s of the study hope that this research will result in better housing systems for animals who are normally kept in cages.