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Jennings, D. J. (2014). Limited evidence that visual lateralization is associated with fitness in rutting male fallow deer. Anim. Behav., 92, 85–91.
Abstract: Under certain models of animal competition, individuals are expected to gather information about opponent quality in order to determine whether they should fight or withdraw. However, the ability to process complex information differs between individuals and across brain hemispheres: a feature of vertebrate cognition known as lateralization that is not anticipated by contest models. I investigated the relationship between aggressive behaviour and mating success during the fallow deer, Dama dama, rut and a measure of lateralization derived from eye preference during parallel walking. Results show that there was no relationship between the tendency to escalate to fighting or predictability in the tendency to engage in fighting and lateralization. Conversely, there was a quadratic relationship between third-party intervention behaviour and lateralization: the greater the tendency to intervene in ongoing fights the lower the degree of lateralization. However, individuals that showed lateralization for right-eye use were least likely to be targeted by the intervening male; thus lateralization is beneficial in this context because targeted males are highly likely to lose this subsequent encounter. The relationship between lateralization and mating success was also nonlinear: males that showed little evidence for an eye bias during lateral displays had the greatest mating success. Taken together, individuals that showed lateralization benefited from avoiding being targeted after third-party intervention; conversely, individuals that showed little evidence for lateralization actively intervened during ongoing fights and had higher mating success. These results suggest that, although lateralization does appear to confer a fitness advantage on individuals, this is not as extensive as anticipated.
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Wolter, R., Pantel, N., Stefanski, V., Möstl, E., & Krueger, K. (2014). The role of an alpha animal in changing environmental conditions. Physiol. Behav., 133, 236–243.
Abstract: Abstract The maintenance and development of conservation areas by grazing of large herbivores, such as Przewalski's horses, is common practice. Several nature conservation areas house male bachelor groups of this species. When males are needed for breeding they are removed from the groups, often without considering group compositions and individual social positions. However, alpha animals are needed for ensuring group stability and decision making in potentially dangerous situations in several species. To investigate the role of the alpha male in a bachelor group, we observed the behaviour of five Przewalski's horse males during the enlargement of their enclosure. We analyzed the group's social structure and movement orders, as well as the animals' connectedness, activity budgets, and whether they moved with preferred group members and how factors such as social rank influenced the horses' behaviour. We also investigated the excretion of glucocorticoid metabolites (GCM) via faeces of the horses while exploring a new area as a parameter of glucocorticoid production. Our results show that the alpha male is important for a bachelor group in changing environmental conditions. The alpha male had the highest level of connectedness within the group. When exploring the new environment, its position in the group changed from previously being the last to being the first. Furthermore the whole group behaviour changed when exploring the new area. The stallions showed reduced resting behavior, increased feeding and did not stay close to each other. We found that the excretion of glucocorticoid metabolites of most horses rose only marginally during the first days on the new area while only the alpha male showed a significant increased amount of glucocorticoid production during the first day of the enclosure enlargement.
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Duboscq, J., Agil, M., Engelhardt, A., & Thierry, B. (2014). The function of postconflict interactions: new prospects from the study of a tolerant species of primate. Anim. Behav., 87, 107–120.
Abstract: Aggression can generate anxiety, create uncertainty about its aftermath and jeopardise social relationships. Postconflict interactions serve as conflict management strategies to mitigate these consequences. Whereas postconflict interactions are well characterized in many animals, their functions are still insufficiently investigated. Four functional hypotheses have been proposed: stress reduction, relationship repair, self-protection and benign intent. We aimed to test these hypotheses in females of a tolerant macaque species, the crested macaque, Macaca nigra, under natural conditions, for three postconflict interactions: reconciliation, affiliation and aggression with third parties. Our results provide meaningful contrasts compared with findings in other species. We found no evidence that aggression had consequences for individuals' behavioural indicators of anxiety, although it increased the likelihood of secondary aggression with third parties. There was little evidence for the stress reduction hypothesis as the occurrence of any of the three postconflict interactions investigated had little effect on the measured behavioural indicators of anxiety. Conflict and dyad characteristics also had limited influence on anxiety. The relationship repair function was only partly validated: dyads with stronger bonds or that exchanged more support did not reconcile more often, but dyads with attributes related to the symmetry, stability and predictability (i.e. security) within relationships did. Patterns of initiation and directionality of postconflict interactions in this study population suggest that reconciliation may constitute the signalling of appeasement and benign intent. Furthermore, we found that aggression towards third parties may serve as a source of self-protection and reassertion of the females' social status. The distinctive pattern of postconflict management strategies revealed in wild female crested macaques appears to be related to their typically tolerant social style. These results demonstrate the usefulness of concomitantly studying aggression, postconflict interactions and their functions, to understand conflict management strategies comprehensively, while taking into account the level of social tolerance characterizing the studied society.
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Krueger, K., & Koenig von Borstel, U. (2014). Grundlagen der Sinneswahrnehmung von Pferden. In Deutsche Reiterliche Vereinigung e.V. (Ed.), Pferde verstehen – Umgang und Bodenarbeit (pp. 38–54). Warendorf: FN Verlag der deutschen Reiterlichen Vereinigung GmbH.
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Krueger, K., & Koenig von Borstel, U. (2014). Wie Pferde lernen. In Deutsche Reiterliche Vereinigung e.V. (Ed.), Pferde verstehen – Umgang und Bodenarbeit (pp. 56–82). Warendorf: FN Verlag der deutschen Reiterlichen Vereinigung GmbH.
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Krueger, K. (2014). “Pferdehaltung und Ethologie der Pferde” im Bachelorstudiengang Pferdewirtschaft. In : S. Lepp und C. Niederdrenk-Felgner (Ed.), Forschendes Lernen initiieren, umsetzen und reflektieren (pp. 54–81). Bielefeld: UniversitätsVerlag Webler.
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Krueger, K. (2014). Die Bedeutung der Schiefe, Händigkeit und sensorische Lateralität der Pferde. In Pferdetage Baden-Württemberg 2014. Stuttgart: Matthaes Medien.
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Wolter, R., Pantel, N., Möstl, E., & Küger, K. (2014). Das Verhalten von Przewalski Pferden in Semi-Reservaten. In Pferdetage Baden-Württemberg 2014. Stuttgart: Matthaes Medien.
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Lerbs, S., Raue, T., & Krüger, K. (2014). Gibt es einen Zusammenhang zwischen natürlicher Schiefe und motorischer und sensorischer Einseitigkeit der Fohlen (Equus caballus)? In Pferdetage Baden-Württemberg 2014. Stuttgart: Matthaes Medien.
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Trögel, D., Wolter, R., & Krueger, K. (2014). Fallstudie zum Platzangebot, Verhalten und Wohlbefinden der Pferde (Equus caballus) in Mehrraum-Außenlaufställen mit Aus-lauf und Bewegungsställen [A case study to space, behavior and well-being of horses (Equus caballus) in open stables and open active stables]. In KTBL Schriften. Darmstadt.
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