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Heath-Lange, S., Ha, J. C., & Sackett, G. P. (1999). Behavioral measurement of temperament in male nursery-raised infant macaques and baboons. Am. J. Primatol., 47(1), 43–50.
Abstract: We define temperament as an individual's set of characteristic behavioral responses to novel or challenging stimuli. This study adapted a temperament scale used with rhesus macaques by Schneider and colleagues [American Journal of Primatology 25:137-155, 1991] for use with male pigtailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina, n = 7), longtailed macaque (M. fascicularis, n = 3), and baboon infants (Papio cynocephalus anubis, n = 4). Subjects were evaluated twice weekly for the first 5 months of age during routine removal from their cages for weighing. Behavioral measures were based on the subject's interactions with a familiar human caretaker and included predominant state before capture, response to capture, contact latency, resistance to tester's hold, degree of clinging, attention to environment, defecation/urination, consolability, facial expression, vocalizations, and irritability. Species differences indicated that baboons were more active than macaques in establishing or terminating contact with the tester. Temperament scores decreased over time for the variables Response to Capture and Contact Latency, indicating that as they grew older, subjects became less reactive and more bold in their interactions with the tester. Temperament scores changed slowly with age, with greater change occurring at younger ages. The retention of variability in reactivity between and within species may be advantageous for primates, reflecting the flexibility necessary to survive in a changing environment.
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Kacelnik, A., & Houston, A. I. (1984). Some effects of energy costs on foraging strategies. Anim. Behav., 32(2), 609–614.
Abstract: We consider the effect of including energy costs on the optimal strategy for animals exploiting a depleting food resource. In the context of central place foraging this leads to the problem of what load size should be brought back to the central place. Two strategies are discussed: (i) maximize gross rate of energy delivery and (ii) maximize net rate of energy delivery. The optimal load size (or optimal patch time) for net maximizers is not always larger than for gross maximizers, as has been claimed. Instead, the difference in optimal load size has the same sign as the difference between metabolic rates of travelling and foraging. We point out that the influence of costs has not always been correctly incorporated in experimental tests of the theory.
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Buttelmann, D., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2007). Behavioral cues that great apes use to forage for hidden food. Anim. Cogn., .
Abstract: We conducted three studies to examine whether the four great ape species (chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans) are able to use behavioral experimenter-given cues in an object-choice task. In the subsequent experimental conditions subjects were presented with two eggs, one of which contained food and the other did not. In Study 1 the experimenter examined both eggs by smelling or shaking them, but only made a failed attempt to open (via biting) the egg containing food. In a control condition, the experimenter examined and attempted to open both eggs, but in reverse order to control for stimulus enhancement. The apes significantly preferred the egg that was first examined and then bitten, but had no preference in a baseline condition in which there were no cues. In Study 2, we investigated whether the apes could extend this ability to cues not observed in apes so far (i.e., attempting to pull apart the egg), as well as whether they made this discrimination based on the function of the action the experimenter performed. Subjects significantly preferred eggs presented with this novel cue, but did not prefer eggs presented with a novel but functionally irrelevant action. In Study 3, apes did not interpret human actions as cues to food-location when they already knew that the eggs were empty. Thus, great apes were able to use a variety of experimenter-given cues associated with foraging actions to locate hidden food and thereby were partially sensitive to the general purpose underlying these actions.
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Hare, B., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2001). Do chimpanzees know what conspecifics know? Anim. Behav., 61(1), 139–151.
Abstract: We conducted three experiments on social problem solving by chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes. In each experiment a subordinate and a dominant individual competed for food, which was placed in various ways on the subordinate's side of two opaque barriers. In some conditions dominants had not seen the food hidden, or food they had seen hidden was moved elsewhere when they were not watching (whereas in control conditions they saw the food being hidden or moved). At the same time, subordinates always saw the entire baiting procedure and could monitor the visual access of their dominant competitor as well. If subordinates were sensitive to what dominants did or did not see during baiting, they should have preferentially approached and retrieved the food that dominants had not seen hidden or moved. This is what they did in experiment 1 when dominants were either uninformed or misinformed about the food's location. In experiment 2 subordinates recognized, and adjusted their behaviour accordingly, when the dominant individual who witnessed the hiding was replaced with another dominant individual who had not witnessed it, thus demonstrating their ability to keep track of precisely who has witnessed what. In experiment 3 subordinates did not choose consistently between two pieces of hidden food, one of which dominants had seen hidden and one of which they had not seen hidden. However, their failure in this experiment was likely to be due to the changed nature of the competition under these circumstances and not to a failure of social-cognitive skills. These findings suggest that at least in some situations (i.e. competition with conspecifics) chimpanzees know what conspecifics have and have not seen (do and do not know), and that they use this information to devise effective social-cognitive strategies. Copyright 2001 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
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Sayigh, L. S., Tyack, P. L., Wells, R. S., Solow, A. R., Scott, M. D., & Irvine, A. B. (1999). Individual recognition in wild bottlenose dolphins: a field test using playback experiments. Anim. Behav., 57(1), 41–50.
Abstract: We conducted playback experiments with wild bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, to determine whether there is sufficient information in their individually distinctive signature whistles for individual recognition. We conducted experiments with members of a resident community of dolphins in waters near Sarasota, Florida, during temporary capture-release projects. We used a paired playback design, wherein the same two whistle sequences were predicted to evoke opposite responses from two different target animals. This design controlled for any unknown cues that may have been present in the playback stimuli. We predicted that mothers would respond more strongly to the whistles of their own independent offspring than to the whistles of a familiar, similar-aged nonoffspring. Similarly, we predicted that independent offspring would respond more strongly to the whistles of their own mother than to the whistles of a familiar, similar-aged female. Target animals were significantly (P<0.02) more likely to respond to the predicted stimuli, with responses measured by the number of head turns towards the playback speaker. In bottlenose dolphin societies, stable, individual-specific relationships are intermixed with fluid patterns of association between individuals. In primate species that live in similar 'fission-fusion' type societies, individual recognition is commonplace. Thus, when taken in the context of what is known about the social structure and behaviour of bottlenose dolphins, these playback experiments suggest that signature whistles are used for individual recognition. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
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Gibson, B. M., Juricevic, I., Shettleworth, S. J., Pratt, J., & Klein, R. M. (2005). Looking for inhibition of return in pigeons. Learn Behav, 33(3), 296–308.
Abstract: We conducted four experiments in order to investigate whether pigeons' responses to a recently attended (i.e., recently pecked) location are inhibited. In Experiments 1 and 2, stimulus displays were similar to those used in studies of inhibition of return (IOR) with humans; responses to cued targets tended to be facilitated rather than inhibited. In Experiments 3 and 4, birds were presented with stimulus displays that mimicked clusters of small grains and were relatively localized, which should have been more appropriate for detecting IOR in pigeons. The results from these experiments again provided evidence for facilitation of responding to cued targets, rather than for IOR.
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Cloutier, S., & Newberry, R. C. (2002). Differences in skeletal and ornamental traits between laying hen cannibals, victims and bystanders. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 77(2), 115–126.
Abstract: We compared the size of skeletal and ornamental traits, and asymmetries in bilateral skeletal traits, between victims of cannibalism, cannibals and bystanders within small groups of caged female White Leghorns at the time of cannibalistic attacks (i.e. injurious pecks resulting in bleeding). We hypothesised that victims of cannibalism have discernible morphological traits that predispose them to cannibalistic attack. We predicted that victims would have smaller skeletal traits (body length, ulna length, metatarsus length and width, toe length), lower body weight, poorer body condition, smaller combs and more asymmetrical bilateral skeletal traits than their flock mates. Contrary to our prediction, victims of cannibalistic attacks to the head/neck area (N=23) tended to have larger combs than their flock mates (Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test, S=59, P=0.037, NS after sequential Bonferroni adjustment). Their cannibals were more asymmetrical than non-cannibalistic bystanders (metatarsus length, S=48, P=0.011 and composite asymmetry, S=62.5, P=0.002, significant after sequential Bonferroni adjustment). In agreement with our prediction, victims of cannibalistic attacks to other body parts (N=27), including the back, wings, rump, tail, cloaca, abdomen and toes, were more asymmetrical (composite asymmetry, S=78, P=0.022, significant after sequential Bonferroni adjustment) and tended to have lower body weights (S=79.5, P=0.029, NS after sequential Bonferroni adjustment) than their flock mates. Their cannibals did not differ in skeletal or ornamental traits from the non-participating bystanders. The results suggest that large combs either elicit attacks to the head and neck area or increase vulnerability to injury during such attacks. Attacks to other body parts appear to be directed towards birds with signs of weakness relative to their flock mates. In these attacks, there were no distinguishing features separating cannibals from bystanders, suggesting that the bystanders could all be potential cannibals.
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Maros, K., Kovács, R., & Nagy, K. (2015). Questionnaire survey personality assessment of horses of different use. In K. Krueger (Ed.), Proceedings of the 3. International Equine Science Meeting. Wald: Xenophon Publishing.
Abstract: We collected data from 248 horses of different breeds, age, sex and use, forming four groups: 74 trotters, 70 gallop horses, 60 horseback archery horses and 44 police horses. All horses were trained and ridden/driven in a regular base. Caretakers or owners who were familiar with the target animals were asked to assess their horses’ temperament. The temperament scores were obtained with the 7-point scale questionnaire according to the Horse Personality Questionnaire which has 25 items and has previously been shown to be reliable for the assessment of personality in horses. It measures six personality components in horses: Dominance, Anxiousness, Excitability, Protection, Sociability and Inquisitiveness.
Component scores were calculated according to Lloyd, A.S., Martin, J.E., Bornett-Gauci, H.L.I., Wilkinson, R.G. (2008) Horse personality: Variation between breeds. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 112. 369–383. The component scores were compared across the four examined groups using the Kruskal–Wallis test. Post hoc multiple comparisons tests were then carried out to explore specific breed differences on each component. The value of alpha was set at 0.05 for all statistical tests.
Groups differed significantly regarding Anxiousness and Excitability, but no significant differences were found regarding Dominance, Protection, Sociability or Inquisitiveness among groups. This finding is in line with the findings of Lloyd et al. (2008) who showed that Anxiousness and Excitability components have the highest level of variation between breeds.In our study, gallop horses had the highest rank regarding Excitability and they differed significantly from police horses which had the lowest rank for this personality component. Interestingly gallop horses had the lowest rank regarding Anxiousness, and trotters got the highest rank in in this component.
According to our results gallop horses are the most extreme in their personality. It is conceivable that being excitable is a more favourable trait for a race horse than for a working police horse. However, it is interesting that trotters are more anxious than gallop horses since they also have a high thoroughbred ancestry. The effect of work and training on these horses needs further surveys.
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Momozawa, Y., Ono, T., Sato, F., Kikusui, T., Takeuchi, Y., Mori, Y., et al. (2003). Assessment of equine temperament by a questionnaire survey to caretakers and evaluation of its reliability by simultaneous behavior test. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 84(2), 127–138.
Abstract: We carried out a questionnaire survey of the caretakers, using 86 riding horses kept in the Equestrian Park, Tokyo (Japan Racing Association). The questionnaire survey used a 5-point scale and a 3-point scale to assess several caretakers' impressions of each horse's temperament, on the basis of the norm and the horse's tendencies in ordinary care and daily training. Factor analysis of the temperament scores obtained with the 5-point scale questionnaire revealed three mutually independent factors that we named “anxiety”, “novelty seeking” and “understanding”. In order to verify the reliability of this questionnaire survey, a balloon reactivity test was conducted using the same horses. Each horse was introduced into an unfamiliar indoor arena (7 mx12.5 mx3 m) in the center of which two balloons slowly revolved. The horses' responses were assessed by recording changes in their behavior and heart rate (HR) during the 5 min experimental period. By comparing the questionnaire survey and the balloon reactivity test, it was found that the horses evaluated as highly anxious by the caretakers tended to show greater HR increases and defecate more often during exposure to the balloon stimuli than did the other horses. Additionally, the horses assessed by caretakers to have problems with ordinary care and/or training showed greater increases of HR and frequency of defecation in the balloon reactivity test, and the horses assessed as having `a long adaptation time to unfamiliar objects' were found to be unwilling to touch the balloons. Thus, the horses' behavior during the balloon reactivity test was highly consistent with their temperament as determined by the questionnaire. These results suggest that the questionnaire survey would be an effective means to assess equine temperamental traits, especially those related to anxiety.
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Timney, B., & Keil, K. (1992). Visual acuity in the horse. Vis. Res., 32(12), 2289–2293.
Abstract: We assessed the ease with which horses could learn visual discriminations and measured their resolution acuity. We trained three horses to press their noses against one of two large wooden panels to receive a small food reward. Following training on a series of two-choice discrimination tasks, resolution acuity was measured. Although there was some variability between animals, the best acuity obtained was 23.3 c deg-1. Within the margin of error imposed by limited anatomical data, the obtained values are consistent with predictions based on retinal ganglion cell density estimates and posterior nodal distance/axial length ratios. They suggest that the resolution acuity of the horse is limited by ganglion cell density in the temporal portion of the narrow visual streak.
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