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Briard, L.; Dorn, C.; Petit, O. |
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Title |
Personality and Affinities Play a Key Role in the Organisation of Collective Movements in a Group of Domestic Horses |
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Journal Article |
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2015 |
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Ethology |
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Ethology |
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121 |
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9 |
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888-902 |
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Keywords |
decision-making; equids; hierarchy; leadership; social network |
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Understanding how groups of individuals with different motives come to daily decisions about the exploitation of their environment is a key question in animal behaviour. While interindividual differences are often seen only as a threat to group cohesion, growing evidence shows that they may to some extent facilitate effective collective action. Recent studies suggest that personality differences influence how individuals are attracted to conspecifics and affect their behaviour as an initiator or a follower. However, most of the existing studies are limited to a few taxa, mainly social fish and arthropods. Horses are social herbivores that live in long-lasting groups and show identifiable personality differences between individuals. We studied a group of 38 individuals living in a 30-ha hilly pasture. Over 200 h, we sought to identify how far individual differences such as personality and affinity distribution affect the dynamic of their collective movements. First, we report that individuals distribute their relationships according to similar personality and hierarchical rank. This is the first study that demonstrates a positive assortment between unrelated individuals according to personality in a mammal species. Second, we measured individual propensity to initiate and found that bold individuals initiated more often than shy individuals. However, their success in terms of number of followers and joining duration did not depend on their individual characteristics. Moreover, joining process is influenced by social network, with preferred partners following each other and bolder individuals being located more often at the front of the movement. Our results illustrate the importance of taking into account interindividual behavioural differences in studies of social behaviours. |
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1439-0310 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6153 |
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Baragli,P.; Cozzi,A; Rugani, R.; Sighieria, C.; Regolin, L. |
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Title |
Delayed search for non-social goals by Equids (Equus caballus and Equus asinus) |
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Conference Article |
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2008 |
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IESM 2008 |
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cognitive abilities, delayed-response, Equids, working memory. |
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Delayed-responses have been traditionally employed to investigate the temporal characteristics of animals“ ability to represent and recall objects that have disappeared. In the typical condition, the animal, usually a mammal, observes the experimenter hiding an interesting goal (e.g. some food) in a certain location. A delayed-response task (DRT) was administered to 4 female Esperia pony (2 years old) coming from a free-range breed (Frosinone, Italy) and to 7 female Amiata donkeys (4.2±2 years old) coming from a conservation stock (University of Pisa, Italy). The DRT's apparatus was located in a square fence. A single ”U-shaped“ screen (330x160x140 cm) made by wood shavings blocks was positioned in the centre of the fence. A gap (40x50 cm) on the ground was in the middle of the central side of the U-shaped-screen and served to make the food-attractor disappear. The food-attractor consisted in cereal flakes and fresh grass for ponies and cereal flakes for donkeys. A bucket full of food was placed on a dolly tied on a rope which could be pulled by an experimenter. In a preliminary training each animal was allowed to eat food from the bucket and, while the animal was eating, the dolly was gently pulled away from the animal, and beyond the screen through the gap. The subjects needed to move around of the screen in order to retrieve the food. As a reinforcement, they were allowed to eat some food from the bucket once behind the screen. From trial to trial, the bucket was presented farther and farther (starting with a distance of 1 m in front of the screen to reach 7 m). Therefore subjects were tested in the DRT requiring them to rejoin the bucket with the goal-food disappearing behind the screen as in the preliminary training but following a 10 s delay. For the DRT, the bucket was placed 7 m in front of the screen, 3 m away from the animal's starting area. Then the dolly was pulled away from the animal. Ten seconds after the disappearance of the dolly behind the screen the animal was released from the starting area. The DRT ended when the subject had reached the attractor behind the screen on 3 consecutive trials. Results showed that all animals were able to rejoin the food behind the screen after 10 s delay. The mean time of the delayed-response (mean±sd, in s) in the ponies (1st: 19.8±8; 2nd: 10.8±2.2; 3rd: 12.8±2.8) and in the donkeys (1st: 28.4±10; 2nd: 26.9±13; 3rd: 24.3±16.6) showed a trend to decrease from first trial to third. These preliminary results suggest that like other mammals our ponies and donkeys can maintain a working memory trace of the location where biologically attractive objects have been seen to disappear. In conclusion, this study paves the way to set up a viable model system for the investigation of the more sophisticated aspects of Equids” cognitive abilities such as working memory. |
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Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology, University of Pisa, Viale delle Piagge 2 – 56124, Pisa, Italy |
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Cozzi, A |
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IESM 2008 |
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Talk 15 min IESM 2008 |
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yes |
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Call Number |
Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4475 |
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