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Author |
Bandini, E.; Tennie C. |
Title |
Exploring the role of individual learning in animal tool-use |
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Journal Article |
Year |
2020 |
Publication |
PeerJ |
Abbreviated Journal |
PeerJ |
Volume |
25 |
Issue |
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Pages |
8:e9877 |
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The notion that tool-use is unique to humans has long been refuted by the growing number of observations of animals using tools across various contexts. Yet, the mechanisms behind the emergence and sustenance of these tool-use repertoires are still heavily debated. We argue that the current animal behaviour literature is biased towards a social learning approach, in which animal, and in particular primate, tool-use repertoires are thought to require social learning mechanisms (copying variants of social learning are most often invoked). However, concrete evidence for a widespread dependency on social learning is still lacking. On the other hand, a growing body of observational and experimental data demonstrates that various animal species are capable of acquiring the forms of their tool-use behaviours via individual learning, with (non-copying) social learning regulating the frequencies of the behavioural forms within (and, indirectly, between) groups. As a first outline of the extent of the role of individual learning in animal tool-use, a literature review of reports of the spontaneous acquisition of animal tool-use behaviours was carried out across observational and experimental studies. The results of this review suggest that perhaps due to the pervasive focus on social learning in the literature, accounts of the individual learning of tool-use forms by naïve animals may have been largely overlooked, and their importance under-examined. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6659 |
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Lucidi, P.; Bacco, G.; Sticco, M.; Mazzoleni, G.; Benvenuti, M.; Bernabò, N.; Trentini, R. |
Title |
Assessment of motor laterality in foals and young horses (Equus caballus) through an analysis of derailment at trot |
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Journal Article |
Year |
2013 |
Publication |
Physiology & Behavior |
Abbreviated Journal |
Physiol. Behav. |
Volume |
109 |
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Pages |
8-13 |
Keywords |
Horse; Laterality; Longeing; Sidedness |
Abstract |
The conflicting results regarding the study of motor laterality in horses may indicate that there does not exist a proper method to assess the degree and the direction of motor bias in these animals. Unfortunately, even less is known about the development of laterality in horses, and to what extent early manipulations can still exert their effects in adulthood. We propose a new method that can be easily applied at a very early age thus avoiding testing adult horses eventually biased by human handling and/or training. Forty-six horses (29 nine-month-old foals and 17 two-year old horses) were handled since birth bilaterally and housed in groups in wide areas. At the time of the analysis, in order to minimize environmental and sensorial disturbances, each horse was tested in a round pen individually or as dyad mother-foal. The ability/inability to properly execute a circle at trot was then recorded, assuming the direction of derailment, i.e. the cutting of the circle, as an indicator of motor bias. From the results of the study it is arguable that motor laterality in horses is acquired over time: in fact foals tested while their mothers were being subjected to longeing showed a higher percentage of ambidextrous animals, while two-year-old horses appeared biased toward the right (p<0.05). Results are discussed in the light of the scientific knowledge about equine biomechanics, taking into account horses' locomotion that leads to the advancement of the body mass through the activation of a kinetic chain that originates from the hindquarters. |
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0031-9384 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6666 |
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Dwan, K.; Altman, D.G.; Arnaiz, J.A.; Bloom, J.; Chan, A.-W.; Cronin, E.; Decullier, E.; Easterbrook, P.J.; Von Elm, E.; Gamble, C.; Ghersi, D.; Ioannidis, J.P.A.; Simes, J.; Williamson, P.R. |
Title |
Systematic Review of the Empirical Evidence of Study Publication Bias and Outcome Reporting Bias |
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Journal Article |
Year |
2008 |
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Plos One |
Abbreviated Journal |
Plos One |
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3 |
Issue |
8 |
Pages |
e3081 |
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Background The increased use of meta-analysis in systematic reviews of healthcare interventions has highlighted several types of bias that can arise during the completion of a randomised controlled trial. Study publication bias has been recognised as a potential threat to the validity of meta-analysis and can make the readily available evidence unreliable for decision making. Until recently, outcome reporting bias has received less attention. Methodology/Principal Findings We review and summarise the evidence from a series of cohort studies that have assessed study publication bias and outcome reporting bias in randomised controlled trials. Sixteen studies were eligible of which only two followed the cohort all the way through from protocol approval to information regarding publication of outcomes. Eleven of the studies investigated study publication bias and five investigated outcome reporting bias. Three studies have found that statistically significant outcomes had a higher odds of being fully reported compared to non-significant outcomes (range of odds ratios: 2.2 to 4.7). In comparing trial publications to protocols, we found that 40-62% of studies had at least one primary outcome that was changed, introduced, or omitted. We decided not to undertake meta-analysis due to the differences between studies. Conclusions Recent work provides direct empirical evidence for the existence of study publication bias and outcome reporting bias. There is strong evidence of an association between significant results and publication; studies that report positive or significant results are more likely to be published and outcomes that are statistically significant have higher odds of being fully reported. Publications have been found to be inconsistent with their protocols. Researchers need to be aware of the problems of both types of bias and efforts should be concentrated on improving the reporting of trials. |
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Public Library of Science |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6644 |
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Krueger, K.; Esch, L.; Byrne, R. |
Title |
Need or opportunity? A study of innovations in equids |
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Journal Article |
Year |
2021 |
Publication |
Plos One |
Abbreviated Journal |
Plos One |
Volume |
16 |
Issue |
9 |
Pages |
e0257730 |
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Debate persists over whether animals develop innovative solutions primarily in response to needs or conversely whether they innovate more when basic needs are covered and opportunity to develop novel behaviour is offered. We sourced 746 cases of “unusual” behaviour in equids by contacting equid owners and caretakers directly and via a website (https://innovative-behaviour.org), and by searching the internet platforms YouTube and Facebook for videos. The study investigated whether differences in need or opportunity for innovation were reflected in the numbers of different types of innovations and in the frequencies of repeating a once-innovative behaviour (i) with respect to the equids' sex, age, and breed type, (ii) across behavioural categories, and whether (iii) they were affected by the equids' management (single vs group housing, access to roughage feed, access to pasture, and social contact). We found that the numbers of different types of innovation and the frequency of displaying specific innovations were not affected by individual characteristics (sex, age, breed or equid species). Few types of innovation in escape and foraging contexts were observed, whilst the comfort, play, and social contexts elicited the greatest variety of innovations. We also found higher numbers of different types of innovations in horses kept in groups rather than in individual housing, and with unlimited rather than with restricted access to pasture and roughage. Equids in permanent social contact performed high rates of once-innovative behaviour. We suggest that equids produce goal-directed innovations and repeat the behaviour at high frequency in response to urgent needs for food and free movement or when kept in conditions with social conflict. However, equids devise the greatest variety of innovations when opportunity to play and to develop comfort behaviour arises and when kept in good conditions. |
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Public Library of Science |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6653 |
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Krueger, K.; Gruentjens, T.; Hempel, E. |
Title |
Wolf contact in horses at permanent pasture in Germany |
Type |
Journal Article |
Year |
2023 |
Publication |
Plos One |
Abbreviated Journal |
Plos One |
Volume |
18 |
Issue |
8 |
Pages |
e0289767 |
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Wolves returned to Germany in 2000, leading to fear in German horse owners that their horses could be in danger of wolf attacks or panic-like escapes from pastures when sighting wolves. However, reports from southern European countries indicate that wolf predation on horses diminishes with increasing presence of wildlife. Therefore, we conducted a long-term, filed observation between January 2015 and July 2022 on 13 non breeding riding horses, mares and geldings, kept permanently on two pastures within the range of wildlife and a stable wolf pack with annual offspring. Wildlife cameras at the fences of the pastures made 984 times recordings of wolves and 3151 times recordings of wildlife in and around the pastures. Between 1 January 2022 and 23 March 2022 we observed two stable horse groups. Pasture 1 was grazed by five horses of mixed breed, four mares and one gelding, with the median age of 8 years (min. = 6y, max. = 29y). Pasture 2 was grazed by eight heavy warmbloods and draught horses, three mares and five geldings, with the median age of 16 years (min. = 13y, max. = 22y). During this period no wolf was recorded at pasture 2, but wild boar several times, whereas at pasture 1, wolves were recorded 89 times, and for the wildlife mostly hare. Wolves may have avoided pasture 2 because of the presence of wild boar or because the large group of older, heavy breed horses may have formed a stable, protective group. The latter needs to be confirmed in a follow-up field observation, which records anti-predator behavior and welfare indicators in horses. In conclusion, wolves did not attack the mature horses on pastures with plenty of wildlife and the horses did not respond to the presence of wolves with visible signs of reduced welfare or panic. This indicates that wolves may prefer to prey on easily accessible wildlife around and at horse pastures and that Central European horses become accustom to the presence of non-hunting wolves. |
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Public Library of Science |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6708 |
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Author |
Benson-Amram, S.; Holekamp, K.E. |
Title |
Innovative problem solving by wild spotted hyenas |
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Journal Article |
Year |
2012 |
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Proc R Soc B |
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Proc R Soc B |
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279 |
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4087-4095 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ Benson-Amram2012 |
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6266 |
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Hartmann, E.; Christensen, J.W.; McGreevy, P.D. |
Title |
Dominance and Leadership: Useful Concepts in Human-Horse Interactions? |
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Journal Article |
Year |
2017 |
Publication |
Journal of Equine Veterinary Science |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proceedings of the 2017 Equine Science Symposium |
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52 |
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1-9 |
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Horse; Social order; Dominance hierarchy; Aggression; Injury; Learning; Training |
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Dominance hierarchies in horses primarily influence priority access to limited resources of any kind, resulting in predictable contest outcomes that potentially minimize aggressive encounters and associated risk of injury. Levels of aggression in group-kept horses under domestic conditions have been reported to be higher than in their feral counterparts but can often be attributed to suboptimal management. Horse owners often express concerns about the risk of injuries occurring in group-kept horses, but these concerns have not been substantiated by empirical investigations. What has not yet been sufficiently addressed are human safety aspects related to approaching and handling group-kept horses. Given horse's natural tendency to synchronize activity to promote group cohesion, questions remain about how group dynamics influence human-horse interactions. Group dynamics influence a variety of management scenarios, ranging from taking a horse out of its social group to the prospect of humans mimicking the horse's social system by taking a putative leadership role and seeking after an alpha position in the dominance hierarchy to achieve compliance. Yet, there is considerable debate about whether the roles horses attain in their social group are of any relevance in their reactions to humans. This article reviews the empirical data on social dynamics in horses, focusing on dominance and leadership theories and the merits of incorporating those concepts into the human-horse context. This will provide a constructive framework for informed debate and valuable guidance for owners managing group-kept horses and for optimizing human-horse interactions. |
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0737-0806 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6712 |
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Brinkmann, L.; Gerken, M.; Riek, A. |
Title |
Effect of long-term feed restriction on the health status and welfare of a robust horse breed, the Shetland pony (Equus ferus caballus) |
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Journal Article |
Year |
2013 |
Publication |
Research in Veterinary Science |
Abbreviated Journal |
Res. Vet. Sci. |
Volume |
94 |
Issue |
3 |
Pages |
826-831 |
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Animal welfare; Blood parameter; Extensive housing; Feed restriction; Horse; Winter conditions |
Abstract |
Outdoor group housing is increasingly recognized as an appropriate housing system for domesticated horses. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate the effect of potential feed shortage in semi-natural horse keeping systems in winter on animal health and welfare. In 10 female Shetland ponies blood concentrations (NEFA, total protein (TP), total bilirubin (TB), beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and thyroxine (T4)), body mass and the body condition score (BCS) were monitored for 7months including a 4months period of feed restriction in five of the 10 ponies. Restrictively fed animals lost 18.4±2.99% of their body mass and the BCS decreased by 2.2±0.8 points (BCS scale: 0=emaciated, 5=obese). Feed restriction led to a continuous increase in TB (P<0.001) and NEFA (P<0.01) concentrations compared to control ponies. The TP and BHB values only differed at the end of the trial with lower concentrations in restricted fed mares (P<0.05). Feed restriction had no effect on thyroxine concentrations. TB concentrations in the feed restricted group were out of the reference range during the entire feeding trial. The increased NEFA concentrations in feed restricted compared to control ponies suggest that fat was mobilized. The BCS, as well as plasma NEFA and TB concentrations were good indicators for a rapid detection of possible health problems caused by undernourishment in horses when kept under semi-natural conditions. In contrast, blood parameters of the control animals were within the reference ranges, suggesting that a year round outdoor housing with additional feed supply is an adequate housing system for a robust horse breed like the Shetland pony. |
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0034-5288 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6601 |
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Henry, S.; Fureix, C.; Rowberry, R.; Bateson, M.; Hausberger, M. |
Title |
Do horses with poor welfare show 'pessimistic' cognitive biases? |
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Journal Article |
Year |
2017 |
Publication |
The Science of Nature |
Abbreviated Journal |
Sci. Nat. |
Volume |
104 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
8 |
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This field study tested the hypothesis that domestic horses living under putatively challenging-to-welfare conditions (for example involving social, spatial, feeding constraints) would present signs of poor welfare and co-occurring pessimistic judgement biases. Our subjects were 34 horses who had been housed for over 3 years in either restricted riding school situations (e.g. kept in single boxes, with limited roughage, ridden by inexperienced riders; N = 25) or under more naturalistic conditions (e.g. access to free-range, kept in stable social groups, leisure riding; N = 9). The horses' welfare was assessed by recording health-related, behavioural and postural indicators. Additionally, after learning a location task to discriminate a bucket containing either edible food ('positive' location) or unpalatable food ('negative' location), the horses were presented with a bucket located near the positive position, near the negative position and halfway between the positive and negative positions to assess their judgement biases. The riding school horses displayed the highest levels of behavioural and health-related problems and a pessimistic judgment bias, whereas the horses living under more naturalistic conditions displayed indications of good welfare and an optimistic bias. Moreover, pessimistic bias data strongly correlated with poor welfare data. This suggests that a lowered mood impacts a non-human species' perception of its environment and highlights cognitive biases as an appropriate tool to assess the impact of chronic living conditions on horse welfare. |
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1432-1904 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ Henry2017 |
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6665 |
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Author |
Boissy, A. |
Title |
Fear and Fearfulness in Animals |
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Journal Article |
Year |
1995 |
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The Quarterly Review of Biology |
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The Quarterly Review of Biology |
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70 |
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2 |
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165-191 |
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Persistence of individual differences in animal behavior in reactions to various environmental challenges could reflect basic divergences in temperament, which might be used to predict details of adaptive response. Although studies have been carried out on fear and anxiety in various species, including laboratory, domestic and wild animals, no consistent definition of fearfulness as a basic trait of temperament has emerged. After a classification of the events that may produce a state of fear, this article describes the great variability in behavior and in physiological patterns generally associated with emotional reactivity. The difficulties of proposing fearfulness-the general capacity to react to a variety of potentially threatening situations-as a valid basic internal variable are then discussed. Although there are many studies showing covariation among the psychobiological responses to different environmental challenges, other studies find no such correlations and raise doubts about the interpretation of fearfulness as a basic personality trait. After a critical assessment of methodologies used in fear and anxiety studies, it is suggested that discrepancies among results are mainly due to the modulation of emotional responses in animals, which depend on numerous genetic and epigenetic factors. It is difficult to compare results obtained by different methods from animals reared under various conditions and with different genetic origins. The concept of fearfulness as an inner trait is best supported by two kinds of investigations. First, an experimental approach combining ethology and experimental psychology produces undeniable indicators of emotional reactivity. Second, genetic lines selected for psychobiological traits prove useful in establishing between behavioral and neuroendocrine aspects of emotional reactivity. It is suggested that fearfulness could be considered a basic feature of the temperament of each individual, one that predisposes it to respond similarly to a variety of potentially alarming challenges, but is nevertheless continually modulated during development by the interaction of genetic traits of reactivity with environmental factors, particularly in the juvenile period. Such interaction may explain much of the interindividual variability observed in adaptive responses. |
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The University of Chicago Press |
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0033-5770 |
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doi: 10.1086/418981 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6664 |
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