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Krueger, K. (2008). Social cognition and social learning in horses. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: In comparison to other social animals it appears to be far more difficult to show social learning in horses, although the social background of the animals prompts the prediction that social learning should be verifiable. This demands for a thorough analysis of conditions, context and effects of social learning which might not be as obvious in horses than in other social animals. Moreover, the horse“s social cognition in general, i.e. the processing, encoding, storage, retrieval, and application of social information, needs to be examined. In previous studies we addressed the horse”s perception of it“s social environment. Our results indicate that domestic horses are not only capable of distinguishing between familiar and unfamiliar horses but also of recognizing the social status of familiar horses relative to their own. Furthermore, they extract information from observing interactions between a familiar horse and a human experimenter, and adjust their behaviour according to the observed horse”s reaction and relative dominance status when they are themselves later confronted with the experimenter in a similar situation. Additionally, we showed in pilot experiments that horses paid more attention to the gaze of dominant horses from their own social group than to that of unknown or subordinate horses. In another study we suggested that horses of both sexes are capable of determining the social affiliation, the sex and, for their own group members, the identity of individuals, by sniffing their faeces. Hence, social affiliation and dominance relationships seemed to have a major influence on the horses` motivation to pay attention to their conspecifics. In the future we will take another step towards linking the horse“s social cognitive capacities with its social ecology, social structure, and individuality. In the context of comparative cognition research on the socially complex primates, or on a range of carnivores such as corvids, canids or dolphins, horses are particularly interesting, because they are highly social, but do not rely on social hunting or cooperative raising of offspring. Also foraging is simple for horses, predator avoidance is demanding and this may be the main reason for the horse”s complex social lives and their choice of learning tactics. Hence, we will investigate the horse"s investigative behaviour towards neutral, fear-eliciting and food related novel objects. We propose that, as in other species, sociality and distinct personalities are key features for the understanding of cognitive capacities and the choice of learning strategies.
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Baragli, P., & Regolin, L. (2008). Cognitive Tests in Equids (Equus caballus and Equus Asinus). In IESM 2008.
Abstract: For ages horses and donkeys constituted the most important domesticated animals. Even though equids were often bred and kept in close proximity to humans, surprisingly little is known about their cognitive abilities. Traditionally, horses are not regarded as clever animals; common beliefs maintain that the horses“ behaviour is merely driven by conditioned-responses. Additionally, from an anthropomorphic point of view donkeys are believed to be ”stupid" animals.
Our study investigates the equids“ ability to recover a hidden object. For this purpose the animal has to create and maintain a representation of the object and its location in space, from the moment in which it disappears from direct perception, till the moment in which it reappears. The knowledge about objects being entities that continue to exist even when they are no longer available for direct perception is refered to as the well known concept of ”object permanence". We primarly assessed the ability of Esperia's pony and donkeys to solve a Detour problem while employing an opaque “U-shaped” barrier. Each animal observed a food bucket moving and disappearing behind the barrier. Immediately after the object"s disappearance, the animal was released to search for the object. If it solved the task by detouring the barrier it was positively reinforced. The ability to retain in memory the hidden object as well as its spatial location was subsequently tested in the presence of two, rather than one, screens (Working Memory testing phase). The food bucket was made to move and hidden behind one of the two identical screens, while the animal was watching it. Following a pre-established delayed period of 10 sec, the animal was set free to look for the food. In such a test the detour problem is combined with the classical delayed-response task, which is in use for the comparison of memory duration in different species. In order to recover the hidden objects, animals must encode, maintain and correctly regain from their working memory the existence of the no longer visible object and its location from their working memory. Both donkeys and ponies performed the Detour task showing to grasp the fact that an object which is no longer perceivable still continues to exist and can be regained. They also were able to correctly retrieve the goal object after a delay of 10 s in the Working Memory tasks, showing that they had encoded, maintained and correclty retrieved from their working memory the spatial location of the hidden object as well as its existence. Nevertheless, when Standardbreds, raised in traditional stables, were tested in identical conditions to those describe for the ponies and donkeys, they could not succeed in the Detour tasks. The reason for such differences needs to be studied Even though it would be interesting to focus on handling differences, i.e., the ponies had been living in an environment rich in natural stimuli, while the Standardbreds had lived in a man-controlled environment since birth. It is also noteworthy that, like donkeys, the Esperia's pony have a reputation for being hard to handle. Several considerations could arise from our preliminary investigations, and we will have the pleasure to leave them open for discussion. |
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McDonnell, S. M. (2008). Human-horse interactions: Where are the behaviorists in 2008? In IESM 2008.
Abstract: This presentation will include commentary on work presented at this meeting as representative of the rapidly growing body of equine behavior science evidence relevant to human-horse interaction and the welfare of domestic, feral, and wild horses.
A substantial literature has accumulated detailing the behavior patterns of wild and feral equid populations, and to some extent the behavior of horses in various domestic environments. Professor Klingel“s and Professor Houpt”s work, begun nearly 40 years ago, continues to inspire colleagues around the world to qualitatively and quantitatively describe behavior of equids in a variety of environments. Several examples of the importance of this type of work to human-horse interaction and horse welfare are evident in throughout the meeting. It forms the basis for assessing the disturbance of behavior in wildlife management projects such as fertility manipulations (Hopkins; Ransom & Cade) or species reintroduction (Kaczensky et al). Study of the apparent variability in observations among the populations will lead to a better understanding of environmental and other factors, which will have fruitful application to welfare of horses both in domestic and natural environments. Unfortunately, this work always brings to mind what I perceive as a nagging threat to horse welfare and quality of human-horse interaction is misinformation concerning natural horse behavior. Natural horse behavior seems to be of great general interest, but unfortunately inaccuracies and misinterpretations are pervasive in popular “horse culture” and continue to be a conspicuous influence on management and training of domestic horses. Unfortunately, this misinformation often makes its way and influences equine education, both lay and equine science/veterinary education. Comparative observational study of behavior of horses in all settings by trained behaviorists, along with research designed to address purported implications for management of domestic horses, along with initiatives to transfer knowledge to educators at all levels should be encouraged. Included in this meeting is considerable work addressing questions of domestic management practices such as forced weaning, transportation, stabling, and arbitrary grouping and regrouping of horses. This adds to a growing body of applied physiology and behavior research that has established trained behaviorists as a critical resource on teams making decisions on humane management. Also well represented in work presented at this meeting is the exploration of cognition, perception, and temperament in horses. It is personally pleasing to see examples of direct investigation of the ability of the horse to respond to subtle human posture and gesture, which for many of us has represented just annoying possible confounders of earlier cognition studies. Behaviorists trained in perception and learning will no doubt contribute enormously to this exciting area of investigation. |
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Walzer, C., Kaczensky, P., Ganbaatar, O., & Stauffer, C. (2008). Przewalski Horses, Satellites and Wild Asses. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: The Przewalski`s horse (Equus f. przewalskii) was extinct in the wild by the mid-sixties of the past century. The species only survived due to captive breeding from 13 founder individuals. In 1992 a reintroduction program was initiated in the Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area in southwestern Mongolia. During it“s initial years, the project concentrated exclusively on P-horses. In the past decade activities have expanded significantly. The ecological project start point can be summed up as follows: i) species is extinct in the wild, ii) severe bottleneck, iii) practically no ecological data prior to extinction, iv) released into an extremely harsh, highly variable and poorly understood environment. The ecological knowledge constraints were compounded by i) highly emotional species, ii) simultaneous and competitive projects, iii) logistic nightmare, iv) non-scientific basis in planning phase. By the late 1990s project leadership and management was overhauled with research and scientific data firmly integrated into the decision-making process. Early scientific input concentrated on determining causes of death and low reproductive rates. The elucidation of the effects of endemic piroplasmosis on the population and subsequent management changes lead to remediation this deadly problem. P-horses have been fitted with ARGOS and GPS-ARGOS collars in order to determine home range and habitat preferences. Simultaneously the Mongolian wild ass and the wolf have been studied with these methods in the shared habitat. Satellite-based technologies provide the backbone for all habitat related project issues. At the onset (digitized Russian maps) data collection was restricted to the Eastern part of the Gobi B. Subsequently the spatial scale encompasses the entire Gobi Region in Mongolia and Northern Xingjian in China (e.g. Landsat, MODIS, NOAA, SRTM). Research has also focused on the role, needs and possible impacts of local semi-nomadic herders that use the protected area. Capacity building and training workshops (e.g. construction of fuel efficient stoves, felting) have been initiated. In 2007 a trans-boundary project in collaboration with the Xingjian Institute of Ecology and Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was initiated. This project aims to support rural communities of nomadic pastoralists living in the trans-boundary area of the Dzungarian Gobi, in China and Mongolia. Today, this project and the one in Hustain Nuruu (Mongolia) are the only ones that have resulted in free-ranging non-supplemented populations. In the Gobi B area some 120 (status 05.2008) P-horses roam in the protected area. In 2003 the IUCN downlisted the Przewalski\'s horse from to . Further downlisting to is predicted to occur in 2011. There is no consensus on when a reintroduction program is deemed successful. Clearly viewing the self-sustainable re-establishment of a population as a successful end-point is at best a short-term approach, constrained by time (today and now). Comprehensive interdisciplinary monitoring and research was and is the foundation for management strategies and decisions in this project. However, a self-sustaining financial base in conjunction with dedicated training and empowerment of local scientists and residents constitute essential prerequisites for the project”s future. Defining success and thereby inferring an end-point can easily lead to complacency compromising species persistence. As others have stated the ultimate project objective must be a constantly re-evaluated state of population persistence without intervention.
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Hausberger, M. (2008). Temperament and Personality in Horses: An Overwiev. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: The existence of individual variations in behaviour has been demonstrated in all species investigated. Horses do show individual variations in a variety of behaviours from an early age on, as well as in behavioural traits underlying temperament/personality. Temperament is generally described as the “biological” (i.e.genetic) basis on which personality, as a result of environmental influences (i.e. experience), will be constructed. Indeed, genetic factors such as breed or patriline do have an influence on aspects like emotional reactions to fear-inducing situations or cognitive abilities while environmental factors, such as the conditions of life or the type of work performed, have also an influence on horse personality. We will review here the existing evidence of this interplay between genetic and environmental influences, showing that different traits can be differently influenced, and then look more thoroughly at the processes involved.
A particular accent will be given to the influence of the human-horse relation on personality traits of horses, both at adult stages through management, daily interactions and type of work, and at early stages through management and handling of foals. The question of the stability of traits across situations and over time, that is of the possible predictibility of behavioural traits, is central, especially where the transfer from experimental situations (behavioural tests) to working situations and performance is concerned. The question of methodological approaches (behavioural tests, observations, questionnaires) can be crucial here and will be discussed. In overall, this review should help understanding the determinants of horse temperament/personality traits and their implication in terms of choice of the appropriate horse for a given owner, better management and training for a better welfare and horse-human relationship. Genetic influences may lead to different susceptibilities to the same environmental conditions which mean that there are no such thing as “bad” or “good” horse temperaments but rather different horse types that may require different management or training schedules. |
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Klingel, H.. (2008). Social Organisation of the Equids. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: Two distinct types of social organisation have evolved in the Equidae. Type 1: In Horse Equus przewalskii, Plains Zebra E. quagga and Mountain Zebra E. zebra the adults live in non-territorial, stable, one-male families and as single bachelors and in bachelor groups. Family stallions have the exclusive mating rights with the mares in their harems. These consist of up to 6 unrelated mares plus their offspring, totalling up to 20 members. Mares stay in their harems until death. Stallions' tenure is from age 5-6 years, i.e. when they succeed in controlling a harem, for close to life time, but are replaced when dead or incapacitated. Harems are stable even in the absence of a stallion, indicating voluntary membership. Adolescent mares leave their parental families to become members of another harem. In Plains Zebra the adolescent mares are abducted, during an oestrus, by suitors who fight the defending family stallion/father. Successful stallions are bachelors who start a family, or family stallions enlarging their harem. Young stallions leave their parental families voluntarily at age 2-3 years and join bachelor stallion groups from where the family stallions are recruited. An individualised dominance hierarchy excists with the stallion in the alpha position. It is based on individual knowledge and recognistion of the members. Type 2: In Grevy's Zebra E. grevyi, African Wild Ass E. africanus and Asiatic Wild Ass E. hemionus adult stallions monopolise territories in which they have the exclusive mating rights. Stallions are tolerant of any conspecifics entering their territory. Bachelor stallions behave subordinately – or fight for the possession of the territory which is a prerequisite for reproduction. Mares join up to form anonymous and unstable groups or herds. The only stable unit is of a mare and her offspring. In Grevy's Zebra mares with foal join preferentially conspecifics of the same soial status, as do mares without foal. Matings take place inside the territory. There is no lasting relationship of the mare with a particular stallion, and the mare may be mated by any stallion whose territory she is visiting. Territories measure up to 10 or more square kilometres, and tenure is for several years. Grevy Zebra territorial owners leave their territories for a few hours to visit a water hole, or for months when grazing and water conditions are below requirements, and re-occupy it upon return, unchallenged. Except for a few small populations, the extant equids live in semi-arid to arid regions where environmental conditions force them to migrate seasonally or opportunistically. The ranges of the various species overlap: Mountain Zebra and Plains Zebra in South Africa and Namibia, Plains Zebra and Grevy's Zebra in Kenya and Ethiopia, Grevy's Zebra and African Wild Ass in Ethiopia, Asiatic Wild Ass and Przewalski Horse in Mongolia andChina. Although, in the overlap zones, individuals of different species are using the same resources like water and grazing simultaneously and next to each other, they rarely make closer contacts. Infanticide has been recorded in captive situations.
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Houpt, K. A. (2008). Maternal behavior in horses. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: Mares quickly form a bond with their foals, probably within the first hour. They lick the foal usually beginning at the tail end, then the head and later the body of the foal. Licking behavior disappears within the first hours in most mares. Once the bond is formed the mare will let no other foal nurse and stays within a meter of the foal most of the time during the first week. The foal follows her when awake, but when he sleeps she stands over him. As the foal matures the distance the mare maintains from the foals get longer and she may graze as he sleeps. The bond of the mother to the foal gradually weakens as revealed by her response to separation from the foal. Weaning usually takes place shortly before the birth of the next foal. Some mares will attempt to steal foals and this can lead to injury of either the mares or the foal. Because of the strong and exclusive bond of most mares to their foal, foal rejection is especially abnormal. It occurs in some breeds more frequently than others, indicating a heritable component. Arabian mares reject 5% of their foals and other breeds reject less than 2%. There are three types of foal rejection- simple fear of the foal that can be quickly solved by holding the mare so the foal can suckle. The mare learns that nursing is pleasurable. This process usually takes only a few hours of holding the mare because foals suckle so frequently- about four times an hours. The second form of foal rejection is avoidance of tactile stimulation of the inguinal fold. When the foal attempts to suckle he usually strikes that skin fold and causes the mare to cow kick and move away. Desensitization to stimulation of the inguinal fold can solve this problem in a few hours. Treatment is more complex and longer for mares that are aggressive to the foal even when it does not touch them. This type of foal rejection can be treated with drugs that inhibit dopamine such as acepromazine-not the alpha adrenergic agent xylazine. Dopamine inhibits the pituitary hormone prolactin, a putative maternal hormone, which increases milk production. Blocking dopamine will increase prolactin. The mare should always have visual contact with the foal, but be restrained so she can not bite or kick the foal. A pole across the stall confining the mare against a wall is best. Maternal behavior can be induced in non-pregnant mares using injections of estrogen, progesterone, and the dopamine inhibitor sulpiride. Once lactation begins cervical stimulation can be used to elicit maternal behavior toward the next foal the mare sees.
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Cregier, S., & Holmes, O. (2008). The Welfare of Horses During Transport. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: Standard horse trailers, adapted from dead-weight delivery wagons, were never intended to carry live weight. Horse magazines and scientific, veterinary, animal behaviour, and engineering journals indicate the consequences: scrambling, trailer sway, equipment damage, loss of tow vehicle control, jack knifing, rollovers, and injuries to horses, handlers, and rescuers. The standard horse trailer cannot meet motor vehicle regulations requiring trailers to halt within 9 metres (30 feet) at 32 kilometres (20 miles) per hour without jack knifing. Equipment intended to protect the horse in transit adds to travel hazards. University of Guelph Ontario Veterinary Clinic surgeons report that head, throat, chest, shattered shoulder blades, butt bar or chain injuries to hocks and legs, and pastern injuries, in that order, are common. Internal, back, and hindquarter injuries also result due to the horse“s forced high-headed, wider hindleg stance or falling during transport. The horse”s sacroiliac joint, not intended to be weight bearing, is easily dislocated by pathologists. This is why for centuries horsemen have released tension from horses“ backs and necks by ”showing them the way to the ground.“ It was Italian cavalryman Federico Caprilli”s forward seat which removed strain on the horse“s hindquarters and freed its head to balance. More demanding jumps, slides and races were possible. Today, only two horse transport designs allow the horse to balance automatically and naturally during transit. Strain on the horse”s hindquarters is removed. These transports, adapted to equine behavioural needs, meet Office International des Epizooties (OIE) standards for handler and horse safety and welfare, and automotive safety. Japanese and U.S. studies on performance horses transported according to OIE standards have indicated that these horses have a competitive advantage. Applying these standards allows a horseman to complete a journey with the same horse that began it.
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Taillon, J., & Côté, S. (2008). Are faecal hormone levels linked to winter progression, diet quality and social rank in young ungulates ? An experiment with white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) fawns. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol., 62(10), 675–677.
Abstract: Abstract Hormones play a central role in the physiology and behaviour of animals. The recent development of noninvasive techniques has increased information on physical and social states of individuals through hormone measurements. The relationships among hormones, life history traits and behaviours are, however, still poorly known. For the first time, we evaluated natural winter glucocorticoid and testosterone levels in young ungulates in relation to winter progression, diet quality and social rank. Overwinter, levels of glucocorticoid and testosterone decreased, possibly due to the decline of fawns" body mass. The relationships between hormone levels and diet quality were surprising: Fawns fed the control diet presented higher glucocorticoid and lower testosterone levels then fawns fed the poor diet, suggesting that control fawns faced a higher nutritional stress than those on the poor diet. Similarly to other studies on social mammals, we found no relationship between faecal glucocorticoid levels and social rank, suggesting that social stress was similar for dominant and subordinate fawns during winter. Testosterone levels were not correlated to social rank as found previously in groups of individuals forming stable social hierarchies and maintaining stable dominance relationships. The simultaneous suppression of glucocorticoid and testosterone levels suggests for the first time that young ungulates present a hormonal strategy to prevent fast depletion of limited proteins and fat resources during winter.
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Li, W., Howard, J. D., Parrish, T. B., & Gottfried, J. A. (2008). Supporting Online Material to: Aversive Learning Enhances Perceptual and Cortical Discrimination of Indiscriminable Odor Cues (Vol. 319).
Abstract: Learning to associate sensory cues with threats is critical for minimizing aversive experience. The ecological benefit of associative learning relies on accurate perception of predictive cues, but how aversive learning enhances perceptual acuity of sensory signals, particularly in humans, is unclear. We combined multivariate functional magnetic resonance imaging with olfactory psychophysics to show that initially indistinguishable odor enantiomers (mirror-image molecules) become discriminable after aversive conditioning, paralleling the spatial divergence of ensemble activity patterns in primary olfactory (piriform) cortex. Our findings indicate that aversive learning induces piriform plasticity with corresponding gains in odor enantiomer discrimination, underscoring the capacity of fear conditioning to update perceptual representation of predictive cues, over and above its well-recognized role in the acquisition of conditioned responses. That completely indiscriminable sensations can be transformed into discriminable percepts further accentuates the potency of associative learning to enhance sensory cue perception and support adaptive behavior.
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