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Hinz, K., Sennet, S., Maros, K., & Krueger, K. (2015). Waiting behaviour in front of a computerized feeding system in an active stable – Effects on heart rate, heart rate variability and sensory laterality in horses. In Current research in applied ethology [Aktuelle Arbeiten zur artgemäßen Tierhaltung. Darmstadt: KTBL-Schrift 510.
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Wolter, R., & Krueger, K. (2015). Einflussfaktoren auf das Grooming-Verhalten bei wilden und verwilderten Pferden [Influencing factors on grooming behaviour in wild living horses]. In Current research in applied ethology [Aktuelle Arbeiten zur artgemäßen Tierhaltung] KTBL Schrift 510. Darmstadt: KTBL-Schrift 510.
Abstract: Die soziale Fellpflege wurde bei Equiden intensiv erforscht. Es stellte sich heraus, dass diverse Faktoren das Grooming-Verhalten beeinflussen können. Neben saisonalen Gegebenheiten sind dies vor allem soziale Faktoren, wie das Alter und Geschlecht der Tiere, die Hierarchie und Gruppenzusammensetzung sowie die Verwandtschaftsverhältnisse der Tiere untereinander. Diese Faktoren können sowohl bei der Häufigkeit der sozialen Fellpflege, als auch bei der Wahl des Partners eine entscheidende Rolle spielen. Zudem konnte gezeigt werden, dass auch das Aggressivitätslevel in einer Gruppe Einfluss auf das soziale Verhalten und die soziale Fellpflege nehmen kann. Inwiefern zwei Individuen, die sich häufig groomen, auch bevorzugt beieinander stehen, konnte bislang noch nicht eindeutig gezeigt werden, da es hierzu diverse Studien mit konträren Ergebnisse gibt. Dieser Aspekt sollte zukünftig dringend untersucht werden, da die beiden Datensätze häufig gemeinsam verwendet werden, um soziale Bindungen zu berechnen, ohne dass bislang ein eindeutiger Zusammenhang zwischen ihnen ermittelt werden konnte.
[Summary
Social grooming has been investigated intensively in Equids during the last years and several factors are known to influence the grooming behaviour. Beside seasonal conditions these are especially social factors as age and sex, hierarchy and group composition as well as kinship. These factors can affect the grooming frequencies and influence the choice of the grooming partner. Moreover, it could be demonstrated that the groups’
aggression level can influence the social behaviour and the grooming intensity. If individuals which show an increased grooming frequency often stand in close proximity as well, has not been affirmed, as, so far, no distinct correlation has been demonstrated. This aspect has to be investigated urgently, as both data sets are often used in combination for calculating social bonds.]
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Burton, A. C., Neilson, E., Moreira, D., Ladle, A., Steenweg, R., Fisher, J. T., et al. (2015). REVIEW: Wildlife camera trapping: a review and recommendations for linking surveys to ecological processes. J Appl Ecol, 52(3), 675–685.
Abstract: Summary Reliable assessment of animal populations is a long-standing challenge in wildlife ecology. Technological advances have led to widespread adoption of camera traps (CTs) to survey wildlife distribution, abundance and behaviour. As for any wildlife survey method, camera trapping must contend with sources of sampling error such as imperfect detection. Early applications focused on density estimation of naturally marked species, but there is growing interest in broad-scale CT surveys of unmarked populations and communities. Nevertheless, inferences based on detection indices are controversial, and the suitability of alternatives such as occupancy estimation is debatable. We reviewed 266 CT studies published between 2008 and 2013. We recorded study objectives and methodologies, evaluating the consistency of CT protocols and sampling designs, the extent to which CT surveys considered sampling error, and the linkages between analytical assumptions and species ecology. Nearly two-thirds of studies surveyed more than one species, and a majority used response variables that ignored imperfect detection (e.g. presence?absence, relative abundance). Many studies used opportunistic sampling and did not explicitly report details of sampling design and camera deployment that could affect conclusions. Most studies estimating density used capture?recapture methods on marked species, with spatially explicit methods becoming more prominent. Few studies estimated density for unmarked species, focusing instead on occupancy modelling or measures of relative abundance. While occupancy studies estimated detectability, most did not explicitly define key components of the modelling framework (e.g. a site) or discuss potential violations of model assumptions (e.g. site closure). Studies using relative abundance relied on assumptions of equal detectability, and most did not explicitly define expected relationships between measured responses and underlying ecological processes (e.g. animal abundance and movement). Synthesis and applications. The rapid adoption of camera traps represents an exciting transition in wildlife survey methodology. We remain optimistic about the technology's promise, but call for more explicit consideration of underlying processes of animal abundance, movement and detection by cameras, including more thorough reporting of methodological details and assumptions. Such transparency will facilitate efforts to evaluate and improve the reliability of camera trap surveys, ultimately leading to stronger inferences and helping to meet modern needs for effective ecological inquiry and biodiversity monitoring.
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Stecken, P. (2015). Bemerkungen und Zusammenhänge.
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Kruger, K. (2015). Wie schlau sind Pferde? Soziales Lernen und innovative Anpassungen der Pferde. In Göttinger Pferdetage’15. Warendorf: FN Verlag.
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Lovrovich, P., Sighieri, C., & Baragli, P. (2015). Following human-given cues or not? Horses (Equus caballus) get smarter and change strategy in a delayed three choice task. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 166, 80–88.
Abstract: Highlights
�Horses remember the location of food hidden by the experimenter after a delay.
�They understand the communicative meaning of a human positioned close to the target.
�The same horses are capable of changing their decision-making strategy.
�They are able to shift from accuracy inferred from human given cues to speed.
�Horses can use human cues or not depending on time, cost, experience and reward.
Abstract
To date, horses have seemed capable of using human local enhancement cues only when the experimenter remains close to the reward, since they fail to understand the communicative meaning of the human as momentary local enhancement cue (when the human is not present at the moment of the animal's choice). This study was designed to analyse the ability of horses to understand, remember and use human-given cues in a delayed (10 s) three-choice task. Twelve horses (experimental group) had to find a piece of carrot hidden under one of three overturned buckets after seeing the experimenter hide it. The results were then compared with those of a control group (twelve horses) that had to find the carrot using only the sense of smell or random attempts. At the beginning, the experimental horses made more correct choices at the first attempt, although they took more time to find the carrot. Later the same horses were less accurate but found the carrot in less time. This suggests that the value of the proximal momentary local enhancement cues became less critical. It seemed, in fact, that the experimental and control group had aligned their behaviour as the trials proceeded. Despite this similarity, in the second half of the trials, the experimental group tended to first approach the bucket where they had found the carrot in the immediately preceding trial. Our findings indicate that horses are capable of remembering the location of food hidden by the experimenter after a delay, by using the human positioned close to the target as valuable information. The same horses are also capable of changing their decision-making strategy by shifting from the accuracy inferred from human given cues to speed. Therefore, horses are able to decide whether or not to use human given-cues, depending on a speed-accuracy trade-off.
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Lee, P. C., & de Antonio, C. A. (2015). Necessity, unpredictability and opportunity: An exploration of ecological and social drivers of behavioral innovation. Animal Creativity and Innovation, , 317–333.
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Krueger, K., Schneider, G., Flauger, B., & Heinze, J. (2015). Context-dependent third-party intervention in agonistic encounters of male Przewalski horses. Behav. Process., 121, 54–62.
Abstract: Abstract One mechanism to resolve conflict among group members is third party intervention, for which several functions, such as kin protection, alliance formation, and the promotion of group cohesion have been proposed. Still, empirical research on the function of intervention behaviour is rare. We studied 40 cases of intervention behaviour in a field study on 13 semi-wild bachelor horses (Equus ferus przewalskii) in (a) standard social situations, and (b) when new horses joined the group (i.e. introductions). Only interventions in agonistic encounters were analysed. Eight of 13 animals directed intervention behaviour toward threatening animal in agonistic encounters of group members. One stallion was particularly active. The stallions did not intervene to support former group mates or kin and interventions were not reciprocated. In introduction situations and in standard social situations, the interveners supported animals which were lower in rank, but targeted, threatening animals of comparable social rank. After introductions, stallions received more affiliative behaviour from animals they supported and thus appeared to intervene for alliance formation. In standard social situations, interveners did not receive more affiliative behaviour from animals they supported and may primarily have intervened to promote group cohesion and to reduce social disruption within the group.
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Huebner, F., & Fichtel, C. (2015). Innovation and behavioral flexibility in wild redfronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons). Anim.Cogn., 18(3), 777–787.
Abstract: Innovations and problem-solving abilities can provide animals with important ecological advantages as they allow individuals to deal with novel social and ecological challenges. Innovation is a solution to a novel problem or a novel solution to an old problem, with the latter being especially difficult. Finding a new solution to an old problem requires individuals to inhibit previously applied solutions to invent new strategies and to behave flexibly. We examined the role of experience on cognitive flexibility to innovate and to find new problem-solving solutions with an artificial feeding task in wild redfronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons). Four groups of lemurs were tested with feeding boxes, each offering three different techniques to extract food, with only one technique being available at a time. After the subjects learned a technique, this solution was no longer successful and subjects had to invent a new technique. For the first transition between task 1 and 2, subjects had to rely on their experience of the previous technique to solve task 2. For the second transition, subjects had to inhibit the previously learned technique to learn the new task 3. Tasks 1 and 2 were solved by most subjects, whereas task 3 was solved by only a few subjects. In this task, besides behavioral flexibility, especially persistence, i.e., constant trying, was important for individual success during innovation. Thus, wild strepsirrhine primates are able to innovate flexibly, suggesting a general ecological relevance of behavioral flexibility and persistence during innovation and problem solving across all primates.
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Aurich, J., Wulf, M., Ille, N., Erber, R., von Lewinski, M., Palme, R., et al. (2015). Effects of season, age, sex and housing on salivary cortisol concentrations in horses. Domest. Anim. Endocrinol., .
Abstract: Abstract Analysis of salivary cortisol is increasingly used to assess stress responses in horses. Since spontaneous or experimentally induced increases in cortisol concentrations are often relatively small for stress studies proper controls are needed. This requires an understanding of factors affecting salivary cortisol over longer times. In this study, we have analysed salivary cortisol concentration over 6 mo in horses (n = 94) differing in age, sex, reproductive state and housing. Salivary cortisol followed a diurnal rhythm with highest concentrations in the morning and a decrease throughout the day (P < 0.001). This rhythm was disrupted in individual groups on individual days; however, alterations remained within the range of diurnal changes. Comparison between months showed highest cortisol concentrations in December (P < 0.001). Cortisol concentrations increased in breeding stallions during the breeding season (P < 0.001). No differences in salivary cortisol concentrations between non-pregnant mares with and without a corpus luteum existed. In stallions, mean daily salivary cortisol and plasma testosterone concentration were weakly correlated (r = 0.251, P < 0.01). No differences in salivary cortisol between female and male young horses and no consistent differences between horses of different age existed. Group housing and individual stabling did not affect salivary cortisol. In conclusion, salivary cortisol concentrations in horses follow a diurnal rhythm and are increased in active breeding sires. Time of the day and reproductive state of the horses are thus important for experiments that include analysis of cortisol in saliva.
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