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Clutton-Brock, T. H., & Harvey, P. H. (1980). Primates, brains and ecology. J. Zool. Lond., 190(3), 309–323.
Abstract: The paper examines systematic relationships among primates between brain size (relative to body size) and differences in ecology and social system. Marked differences in relative brain size exist between families. These are correlated with inter-family differences in body size and home range size. Variation in comparative brain size within families is related to diet (folivores have comparatively smaller brains than frugivores), home range size and possibly also to breeding system. The adaptive significance of these relationships is discussed.
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Schuetz, A., Farmer, K., & Krueger, K. (2017). Social learning across species: horses (Equus caballus) learn from humans by observation. Anim. Cogn., 20(3), 567–573.
Abstract: This study examines whether horses can learn by observing humans, given that they identify individual humans and orientate on the focus of human attention. We tested 24 horses aged between 3 and 12. Twelve horses were tested on whether they would learn to open a feeding apparatus by observing a familiar person. The other 12 were controls and received exactly the same experimental procedure, but without a demonstration of how to operate the apparatus. More horses from the group with demonstration (8/12) reached the learning criterion of opening the feeder twenty times consecutively than horses from the control group (2/12), and younger horses seemed to reach the criterion more quickly. Horses not reaching the learning criteria approached the human experimenters more often than those that did. The results demonstrate that horses learn socially across species, in this case from humans.
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Ringhofer, M., & Yamamoto, S. (2017). Erratum to: Domestic horses send signals to humans when they are faced with an unsolvable task. Anim. Cogn., 20(3), 407.
Abstract: Some domestic animals are thought to be skilled at social communication with humans due to the process of domestication. Horses, being in close relationship with humans, similar to dogs, might be skilled at communication with humans. Previous studies have indicated that they are sensitive to bodily signals and the attentional state of humans; however, there are few studies that investigate communication with humans and responses to the knowledge state of humans. Our first question was whether and how horses send signals to their potentially helpful but ignorant caretakers in a problem-solving situation where a food item was hidden in a bucket that was accessible only to the caretakers. We then examined whether horses alter their behaviours on the basis of the caretakers’ knowledge of where the food was hidden. We found that horses communicated to their caretakers using visual and tactile signals. The signalling behaviour of the horses significantly increased in conditions where the caretakers had not seen the hiding of the food. These results suggest that horses alter their communicative behaviour towards humans in accordance with humans’ knowledge state.
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Riley, J. L., Noble, D. W. A., Byrne, R. W., & Whiting, M. J. (2017). Does social environment influence learning ability in a family-living lizard? Anim. Cogn., 20(3), 449–458.
Abstract: Early developmental environment can have profound effects on individual physiology, behaviour, and learning. In birds and mammals, social isolation during development is known to negatively affect learning ability; yet in other taxa, like reptiles, the effect of social isolation during development on learning ability is unknown. We investigated how social environment affects learning ability in the family-living tree skink (Egernia striolata). We hypothesized that early social environment shapes cognitive development in skinks and predicted that skinks raised in social isolation would have reduced learning ability compared to skinks raised socially. Offspring were separated at birth into two rearing treatments: (1) raised alone or (2) in a pair. After 1 year, we quantified spatial learning ability of skinks in these rearing treatments (N = 14 solitary, 14 social). We found no effect of rearing treatment on learning ability. The number of skinks to successfully learn the task, the number of trials taken to learn the task, the latency to perform the task, and the number of errors in each trial did not differ between isolated and socially reared skinks. Our results were unexpected, yet the facultative nature of this species' social system may result in a reduced effect of social isolation on behaviour when compared to species with obligate sociality. Overall, our findings do not provide evidence that social environment affects development of spatial learning ability in this family-living lizard.
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Bailey, D. (2016). Dominance Hierarchies in Horses: Comparing and Contrasting Different Methods for Assessing Hierarchies. Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado, 5(3).
Abstract: Understanding animal social structures is imperative when it comes to the care, housing and handling of large herd animals. Knowing how hierarchies are structured, along with environmental and physiological aspects that may affect them, will allow owners and breeders to house and care for their animals. The aim of my study was to better understand two methods used to assess dominance hierarchies in horses, Equus caballus, and to predict which method would be more useful for owners housing domestic horses. I designed an experiment where I compared a structured method, the paired feeding test, with behavioral observations from the horses’ natural setting. I hypothesized that the structured method would not conclude the same dominance hierarchy as the natural observations. I also hypothesized that traits of the horses, such as size or age, would correlate with the hierarchy ranking within a herd. A herd of six individual horses from a small ranch east of Platteville, Colorado was used to test the two methods. I found that the two methods measured different hierarchies. The paired feeding test showed no correlations to any of the physical measurements, as well as did not provide a hierarchy that was similar to the natural dominance observations of the horses. Natural observations established a more linear hierarchy and had significant correlations with weight and overall body size. The results indicate that the paired feeding test may not be a valid method for establishing dominance hierarchies within domestic horses housed in a small range.
I recommend use of natural observations over paired feeding tests for ranchers, breeders or owners trying to understand the dominance hierarchies among their herds. |
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Schwenk, B. K., Fürst, A. E., & Bischhofberger, A. S. (2016). Traffic accident-related injuries in horses. Equine Med., 32(3), 192–199.
Abstract: Horses involved in road traffic accidents (RTAs) are commonly presented to veterinarians with varying types of injuries. The aim
of this study was describe the pattern and severity of traffic accident-related injuries in horses in a single hospital population. Medical records of horses either hit by a motorized vehicle or involved in RTAs whilst being transported from 1993 to 2015 were retrospectively reviewed and the following data was extracted: Signalement, hospitalisation time, month in which the accident happened, cause of the accident, place of the accident and type of vehicle hitting the horse. Further the different body sites injured (head, neck, breast, fore limb, abdomen, back and spine, pelvis and ileosacral region, hind limb, tail and genital region), the type of injury (wounds, musculoskeletal lesions and internal lesions) and the presence of neurological signs were retrieved from the medical records. 34 horses hit by motorized vehicles and 13 horses involved in RTAs whilst being transported were included in the study. Most of the accidents where horses were hit by motorized vehicles occurred during December (14.7%) and October (14.7%), horses were most commonly hit by cars (85.3%) and the majority of accidents occurred on main roads (26.5%). In 29.4% of the cases, horses had escaped from their paddock and then collided with a motorized vehicle. Most of the accidents with horses involved in RTAs whilst being transported occurred during April (30.8%) and June (23.1%). In 76.9% of the cases the accident happened on a freeway. In the horses hit by motorized vehicles the proximal hind limbs were the body site most commonly affected (44.1%), followed by the proximal front limbs (38.2%) and the head (32.4%). When horses were involved in RTAs whilst being transported the proximal fore limbs (61.5%), the proximal hind limbs (53.8%) and the distal hind limbs, back and head (38.5% each) were the most common injured body sites. Wounds were the most common type of injury in both groups (85.3% hit by motorized vehicle, 76.9% transported ones). In horses hit by a motorized vehicle 35.3% suffered from fractures, in 20.6% a synovial structure was involved and in 5.9% a tendon lesion was present. 14.7% suffered from internal lesions and 14.7% showed neurologic symptoms (40% peripheral, 60% central neurologic deficits). On the other hand, in horses involved in a RTA whilst being transported 30.8% suffered from fractures. There were no synovial structures injured and no tendon injuries were present. Furthermore there were no internal lesions present and only one horse involved in a RTA showed central neurologic symptoms. Injuries of horses being hit by a motorized vehicle were more severe than when horses were protected by a trailer and involved in a RTA whilst being transported. The study has been able to identify the different injury types of traffic accident-related injuries in horses. Awareness of the nature of these injuries is important, to avoid underestimation of their severity. |
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Quaresmini, C., Forrester, G. S., Spiezio, C., & Vallortigara, G. (2014). Social environment elicits lateralized behaviors in gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 128(3), 276–284.
Abstract: The influence of the social environment on lateralized behaviors has now been investigated across a wide variety of animal species. New evidence suggests that the social environment can modulate behavior. Currently, there is a paucity of data relating to how primates navigate their environmental space, and investigations that consider the naturalistic context of the individual are few and fragmented. Moreover, there are competing theories about whether only the right or rather both cerebral hemispheres are involved in the processing of social stimuli, especially in emotion processing. Here we provide the first report of lateralized social behaviors elicited by great apes. We employed a continuous focal animal sampling method to record the spontaneous interactions of a captive zoo-living colony of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and a biological family group of peer-reared western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). We specifically focused on which side of the body (i.e., front, rear, left, right) the focal individual preferred to keep conspecifics. Utilizing a newly developed quantitative corpus-coding scheme, analysis revealed both chimpanzees and gorillas demonstrated a significant group-level preference for focal individuals to keep conspecifics positioned to the front of them compared with behind them. More interestingly, both groups also manifested a population-level bias to keep conspecifics on their left side compared with their right side. Our findings suggest a social processing dominance of the right hemisphere for context-specific social environments. Results are discussed in light of the evolutionary adaptive value of social stimulus as a triggering factor for the manifestation of group-level lateralized behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
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Nelson, X. J., & Fijn, N. (2013). The use of visual media as a tool for investigating animal behaviour. Animal Behaviour, 85(3), 525–536.
Abstract: In this essay we outline how video-related technology can be used as a tool for studying animal behaviour. We review particular aspects of novel, innovative animal behaviour uploaded by the general public via video-based media on the internet (using YouTube as a specific example). The behaviour of animals, particularly the play behaviour focused on here, is viewed by huge audiences. In this essay we focused on three different kinds of media clips: (1) interspecies play between dogs and a range of other species; (2) object play in horses; and (3) animal responses to stimuli presented on iPads, iPods and iPhones. We argue that the use of video is a good means of capturing uncommon or previously unknown behaviour, providing evidence that these behaviours occur. Furthermore, some of the behaviours featured on YouTube provide valuable insights for future directions in animal behaviour research. If we also take this opportunity to convey our knowledge to a public that seems to be fundamentally interested in animal behaviour, this is a good means of bridging the gap between knowledge among an academic few and the general public.
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Passilongo, D., Buccianti, A., Dessi-Fulgheri, F., Gazzola, A., Zaccaronii, M., & Apollonio, M. (2010). The Acoustic Structure Of Wolf Howls In Some Eastern Tuscany (Central Italy) Free Ranging Packs. Bioacoustics, 19(3), 159–175.
Abstract: Italian wolf howls are described for the first time from observations between 2003–2008 of a population living in eastern Tuscany, central Italy. A sample of 37 howls selected among single responses and 128 howls included in the choruses of 7 free ranging packs was recorded and analysed. The mean fundamental frequency of the howls ranged between 274–908 Hz. Two main structures recognised by means of multivariate explorative analysis, in particular Principal Component and Cluster Analysis, were ascribed to breaking and flat howls. Discriminant Function Analysis was applied to the recognised groups with the aim to find a general rule for classification. Howls with different features were correctly assigned to the groups obtained by explorative analysis in 95.8% of cases. The analysis of the variables characterising the structure of the howls suggests that maximum frequency and range of fundamental frequency are the most important parameters for classification, while duration does not appear to play any significant role.
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Plumer, L., Talvi, T., Männil, P., & Saarma, U. (2018). Assessing the roles of wolves and dogs in livestock predation with suggestions for mitigating human-wildlife conflict and conservation of wolves. Conservat. Genet., 19(3), 665–672.
Abstract: Predation on livestock is a cause of serious and long-lasting conflict between farmers and wildlife, promoting negative public attitudes and endangering conservation of large carnivores. However, while large carnivores, especially the grey wolf (Canis lupus), are often blamed for killing sheep and other farm animals, free-ranging dogs may also act as predators. To develop appropriate measures for livestock protection, reliable methods for identifying predator species are critical. Identification of predators from visual examination of livestock wounds can be ambiguous and genetic analysis is strongly preferable for accurate species determination. To estimate the proportion of wolves and dogs implicated in sheep predation, we developed a sensitive genetic assay to distinguish between wolves and domestic dogs. A total of 183 predator saliva samples collected from killed sheep in Estonia were analysed. The assay identified the predator species in 143 cases (78%). Sheep were most often killed by wolves (81%); however, predation by dogs was substantial (15%). We compared the molecular results with field observations conducted by local environmental officials and recorded some disagreement, with the latter underestimating the role of dogs. As predator saliva samples collected from prey are often of poor quality, we suggest using mitochondrial DNA as a primary tool to maximise the number of successfully analysed samples. We also suggest adopting forensic DNA analysis more widely in livestock predation assessments as a legislative measure since misidentification that is biased against wolves can be counterproductive for conservation by enhancing conflict with society and leading to increased culling and poaching.
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