Abstract: Two studies are reported in which chimpanzees attempted to use social cues to locate hidden food in one of two possible hiding places. In the first study four chimpanzees were exposed to a local enhancement cue (the informant approached and looked to the location where food was hidden and then remained beside it) and a gaze/point cue (the informant gazed and manually pointed towards the location where the food was hidden). Each cue was given by both a human informant and a chimpanzee informant. In the second study 12 chimpanzees were exposed to a gaze direction cue in combination with a vocal cue (the human informant gazed to the hiding location and produced one of two different vocalizations – a 'food-bark' or a human word-form). The results were – (i) all subjects were quite skillful with the local enhancement cue, no matter who produced it; (ii) few subjects were skillful with the gaze/point cue, no matter who produced it (most of these being individuals who had been raised in infancy by humans); and (iii) most subjects were skillful when the human gazed and vocalized at the hiding place, with little difference between the two types of vocal cue. Findings are discussed in terms of chimpanzees' apparent need for additional cues, over and above gaze direction cues, to indicate the presence of food.

Abstract: For human athletes, any physical performance classically begins with a warm-up including a phase of cardio-respiratory activation as well as a phase of neuro-muscular mobilization. For the equine athletes similar routines are widely followed despite limited scientific studies addressing its effectiveness. Although physiological bases are of a similar nature in humans and horses, the latter are showing a different “telos” related to their status of prey. Indeed, their survival depends on their ability to detect any predator or potential danger in their environment and to estimate the need to run away. Therefore warm-up techniques should be adapted to this specificity and we added a walk phase preceding the usual warm-up during which the horse was allowed to visually assess its environment without constraint imposed by its rider, reins being long. We assumed that this walk phase would allow a more relaxed mental state and then a decrease in cognitive resources involved in environmental monitoring. Consequently this would release cognitive resources then available for the communication between the horse and the rider.
The autonomous nervous system (ANS) regulates the heart rate via the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems. The sympathovagal balance and the heart rate variability are considered as good indicators of an acute stress state as well as emotional states. These measures are frequently used to estimate well-being in animals. During the walk phase, we observed a significant decrease of the heart rate (HR), a significant increase of its variability and a significant modification of the sympathovagal balance in favour of a higher contribution of the parasympathetic control. We also measured the non-linear correlation dimension which reflects the degree of freedom of a system. To the best of our knowledge, this method was used until now only in humans to whom it was shown that its decrease is related to stressful events and is associated with a bad prognosis for survival. During the walk phase in horses, the dimension of correlation of cardiac activity was increased.
From a behavioural point of view, we observed a significant decrease of side movements related to head orientation as well as significant changes in ears position, the latter being preferentially directed forwards at the beginning of the walk phase and laterally at the end. As previous research suggests that ears position and head orientation can be involved in attentional mechanisms in horses, our results suggest a decrease of the attention focused on the environment. Furthermore, a significant lowering of the neck was observed as well as a significant decrease of behaviours related to stress.
To conclude our results suggest that a walk phase preceding the usual warm-up of horses would contribute to improve their mental state in favour of more relaxation and of a decrease of the attentional resources invested in environmental monitoring.

Abstract: The place and date of the domestication of the horse has long been a matter for debate among archaeologists. To determine whether horses were domesticated from one or several ancestral horse populations, we sequenced the mitochondrial D-loop for 318 horses from 25 oriental and European breeds, including American mustangs. Adding these sequences to previously published data, the total comes to 652, the largest currently available database. From these sequences, a phylogenetic network was constructed that showed that most of the 93 different mitochondrial (mt)DNA types grouped into 17 distinct phylogenetic clusters. Several of the clusters correspond to breeds and/or geographic areas, notably cluster A2, which is specific to Przewalski's horses, cluster C1, which is distinctive for northern European ponies, and cluster D1, which is well represented in Iberian and northwest African breeds. A consideration of the horse mtDNA mutation rate together with the archaeological timeframe for domestication requires at least 77 successfully breeding mares recruited from the wild. The extensive genetic diversity of these 77 ancestral mares leads us to conclude that several distinct horse populations were involved in the domestication of the horse.

Abstract: Thirty foals and young Konik horses born in 3 consecutive years and reared up to weaning either in a forest reserve (R) or conventional stable (S) were compared with respect to behavioural reactions and heart rate (HR) during handling manipulations. The foals were randomly allocated within sex and rearing group to one of two handling treatments. Intensively handled (IH) foals received a 10-min handling, 5 days/week, beginning at the age of 2 weeks (S foals) or 10 months (R foals), and lasting up to the age of 24 months. During handling IH foals were haltered, touched, rubbed and their feet were picked up; non-handled (NH) foals were not handled except for routine or emergency veterinary care. The horses were tested at the age of approximately 6 months (S only) and 12, 18 and 24 months of age. In a test comprising catching the horse on a paddock, leading away from and towards the stable, picking up feet and being approached by an unfamiliar person, the horses' behaviour was scored and the HR was recorded telemetrically. The IH horses scored better as far as manageability behaviour is concerned (P<0.001) and demonstrated lower HR than the NH ones and the S horses scored better than R ones (P<0.001). Fillies demonstrated higher HR than colts (P=0.007). Youngstock of all groups tended to be less manageable at the age of 24 months than at 18 months. Differences between youngstock stemming from particular harems from the reserve seem to be related to differences in accidental contact with people visiting the forest reserve.

Abstract: In two experiments cats acquired a stimulus-controlled approach or avoidance response by observational or conventional shaping procedures. Observer cats acquired the avoidance response (hurdle jumping in response to a buzzer stimulus) significantly faster and made fewer errors than cats that were conventionally trained. Observer cats acquired the approach response (lever pressing for food in response to a light stimulus) with significantly fewer errors than cats that were conventionally trained. In some cases, observer cats committed one or no errors while reaching criterion.