Beyond the observed network: social optionality reframes dairy cattle network inference for welfare science

Social networks describe animal relationships within particular physical, social, and observational conditions. Their welfare interpretation depends on understanding how those conditions shape the behaviour recorded. Building on ethology, spatial–social analysis, and animal welfare science, we propose social optionality as an integrative construct concerning the scope and revisability of an animal’s social repertoire in relation to physically available alternatives, their functional accessibility, and their behavioural relevance. The organising question is how an animal’s directed repertoire changes when the specified social alternatives change and where in the behavioural process that response arises. We distinguish physical availability, functional social accessibility, and perceived or valued alternatives, then separate encounter exposure, directed action, and observation quality. Existing network and reaction-norm methods can estimate the components of this framework; its contribution is their coordination around a declared opportunity contrast and explicit requirements for biological interpretation. A deterministic worked example illustrates why identical interaction patterns can arise under different access conditions and why reduced social activity need not change partner diversity. The proposed profile is not a validated welfare score. Its interpretation requires knowledge of cattle biology, individual history, and current conditions, while claims about control, agency, or welfare require additional evidence appropriate to those claims. The framework is independent of measurement technology, and ethological expertise informs every stage. Its operational value remains to be established against simpler models supplied with the same information.