Abstract: It is possible that non-specialised cues transmitted by conspecifics guide animals' food search provided they have the cognitive abilities needed to read these cues. Macaques often check the mouth of their group-mates by olfactory and/or visual inspection. We investigated whether Tonkean macaques ( Macaca tonkeana) can find the location of distant food on the basis of cues conveyed by group-mates. The subjects of the study were two 6-year-old males, who belonged to a social group of Tonkean macaques raised in semi-free-ranging conditions. In a first experiment, we tested whether the subject can choose between two sites after having sniffed a partner who has just eaten food corresponding to one of the sites. We found that both subjects were able to choose the matching site significantly above the chance level. This demonstrated that Tonkean macaques are capable of delayed olfactory matching. They could associate a food location with an odour conveyed by a partner. In a second experiment, the same subjects were allowed to see their partner through a Plexiglas window. Both subjects were still able to choose the matching site, demonstrating they could rely on visual cues alone. Passive recruitment of partners appears possible in macaques. They can improve their foraging performances by finding the location of environmental resources from olfactory or visual cues conveyed by group-mates.

Abstract: Learning is likely to be costly and thus subject to trade-off with other components of life history. An obvious prediction, therefore, is that investment in learning, and thus learning performance, will vary with individual life history strategy and the reproductive value of the learning outcome. We tested this idea in the context of social dominance in male laboratory mice, using a simple radial maze paradigm to compare the ability of high- and low-ranking male mice to track changing food location. We tested animals in randomly selected pairs before and after establishing aggressive rank relationships to distinguish intrinsic differences in learning ability from those attributable to acquiring high or low rank. There was no difference in learning between later dominants and subordinates prior to establishing rank relationships. After pairing, however, dominants showed a significantly greater percentage of correct responses, with the difference being greatest earlier in a sequence of trials. The percentage of correct responses also increased with the amount of aggression initiated during pairing. The results thus appeared to reflect a state-dependent change in learning associated with the aggressive social relationships formed during pairing.

Abstract: Lister hooded rats were trained on a forced-sample T-maze alternation task in an environment lacking spatial landmarks. An early study of spontaneous alternation on the T-maze had shown that rats use a “spatial sense” to select alternate maze arms across mazes. As this phenomenon may provide a useful tool for studying the neural substrates of a directional sense, we wished to confirm this finding on a different version of the T-maze task, with well-trained animals. We found that rats successfully selected the appropriate maze arm when the choice phase of the task was presented on a second maze, oriented in the same direction, and located in an adjacent room. However, choice performance fell to chance level when the second maze was oriented 90 degrees relative to the first. This result suggests that the rats do not simply alternate turns across the two environments, but rather that they rely on a sense of direction that is carried across environments.

Abstract: Locoweed (Oxytropis sericea) is a serious poisoning problem for horses grazing on infested rangelands in the western United States. Our objectives were to determine 1) whether lithium chloride or apomorphine would condition aversions to palatable foods, and at what doses, and 2) whether horses could be averted to fresh locoweed in a pen and grazing situation. Apomorphine was not an acceptable aversive agent because at the dose required to condition an aversion (> or = 0.17 mg/kg BW), apomorphine induced unacceptable behavioral effects. Lithium chloride given via stomach tube at 190 mg/kg BW conditioned strong and persistent aversions to palatable feeds with minor signs of distress. Pen and grazing tests were conducted in Colorado to determine if horses could be averted to fresh locoweed. Pen tests indicated that most horses (5/6) were completely averted from locoweed. Treated horses ate 34 g of fresh locoweed compared to 135 g for controls (P < 0.01) during three pen tests when offered 150 g per test. One horse (T) in the treatment group ate locoweed each time it was offered in the pen, but ate no locoweed while grazing. In the grazing trial, control horses averaged 8.6% of bites of locoweed (P < 0.01) during the grazing portion of the study, whereas treated horses averaged <0.5%. One treated horse (S) accounted for all consumption; he consumed 15% of his bites as locoweed in a grazing bout on d 2 of the field study. Thereafter, he was dosed a second time with lithium chloride and ate no locoweed in the subsequent 5 d. Three of six horses required two pairings of lithium chloride with fresh locoweed to condition a complete aversion. The results of this study indicate that horses can be averted from locoweed using lithium chloride as an aversive agent, and this may provide a management tool to reduce the risk of intoxication for horses grazing locoweed-infested rangeland.

Abstract: Many aspects of horse care and handling are based upon convenience and traditional practices. Many of these methods of management and practice do not take into account the natural behaviour of horses. This is despite the belief that although domestic horses are probably more docile, stronger, faster growing and faster moving than their ancestors, they are unlikely to have lost any natural behaviours. The performance or sport horse is expected to perform a wide variety of movements and tasks, some of which are unnatural or exaggerated and most of which must be learned. The term “training” is commonly used to describe the processes whereby the human handler introduces the horse to new situations and associations. Performance horses are often required to tolerate stimuli that are innately aversive or threatening, such as having a person on their backs. They are also trained to respond to a stimulus with often unnatural or over-emphasised behaviour, such as some of the dressage movements. Effective and humane training requires an understanding of the processes underlying behaviour. These include knowledge of behaviour under natural conditions, learning processes, the influence of early experience and motivational forces. Horses differ from the other main companion animal species, namely cats and dogs, in that they are a prey species. They most commonly flee from dangerous and painful situations. Horses readily learn to avoid potentially threatening situations and if their attempts to avoid associated stimuli are prevented, they will often exhibit problem behaviours. In this chapter the history of horse training, the application of learning theory and a knowledge of equine behaviour to training, and innovative training methods are all considered.