Powell, D. (2008). Female–female competition or male mate choice? Patterns of courtship and breeding behavior among feral horses (Equus caballus) on Assateague Island. J. Ethol., 26(1), 137-144.
Abstract: Previous research on the Assateague horses found that high-ranking females had more surviving offspring than low-ranking females. Variance in reproductive success may be the result of a variety of proximate processes that affect sexual behavior such as mate choice and mate competition. A study was done to determine whether patterns of courtship, social, and sexual behavior could be identified that would suggest mate choice and/or mate competition. Behavioral data were collected from approximately 40 sexually mature mares living in harem bands. Stallions showed more interest in the eliminations of dominant mares than subordinate mares. Males also engaged in significantly more high-intensity (e.g., mounts and copulations) sexual behavior with dominant mares than subordinate mares, and there was a trend for males to engage in more low-intensity (e.g., flehmen and ano-genital sniffing) sexual behavior with dominant mares than subordinate mares. There was no effect of mare rank on spatial relationships with the stallion; however, dominant mares did attempt to restrict reproductive access to the stallion by harassing and disrupting copulations. Higher foaling rates among dominant mares on Assateague Island could therefore be the result of rank-related mate choice by stallions and direct female competition for mating opportunities.
|
Baragli, P., Vitale, V., Paoletti, E., Sighieri, C., & Reddon, A. R. (2011). Detour behaviour in horses (Equus caballus). J. Ethol., 29(2), 227–234.
Abstract: The objective of this study was to investigate the ability of horses (Equus caballus) to detour around symmetric and asymmetric obstacles. Ten female Italian saddle horses were each used in three detour tasks. In the first task, the ability to detour around a symmetrical obstacle was evaluated; in the second and third tasks subjects were required to perform a detour around an asymmetrical obstacle with two different degrees of asymmetry. The direction chosen to move around the obstacle and time required to make the detour were recorded. The results suggest that horses have the spatial abilities required to perform detour tasks with both symmetric and asymmetric obstacles. The strategy used to perform the task varied between subjects. For five horses, lateralized behaviour was observed when detouring the obstacle; this was consistently in one direction (three on the left and two on the right). For these horses, no evidence of spatial learning or reasoning was found. The other five horses did not solve this task in a lateralized manner, and a trend towards decreasing lateralization was observed as asymmetry, and hence task difficulty, increased. These non-lateralized horses may have higher spatial reasoning abilities.
|
|
Krueger, K. (2017). Perissodactyla Cognition. In J. Vonk, & T. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior (pp. 1–10). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
|
|
Krueger, K., Marr, I., & Farmer, K. (2017). Equine Cognition. In J. Vonk, & T. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior (pp. 1–11). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
|
de Jong, T. R., & Neumann, I. D. (2018). Oxytocin and Aggression. In R. Hurlemann, & V. Grinevich (Eds.), Behavioral Pharmacology of Neuropeptides: Oxytocin (pp. 175–192). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Abstract: The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) has a solid reputation as a facilitator of social interactions such as parental and pair bonding, trust, and empathy. The many results supporting a pro-social role of OT have generated the hypothesis that impairments in the endogenous OT system may lead to antisocial behavior, most notably social withdrawal or pathological aggression. If this is indeed the case, administration of exogenous OT could be the “serenic” treatment that psychiatrists have for decades been searching for.
|
Irving-Pease, E. K., Ryan, H., Jamieson, A., Dimopoulos, E. A., Larson, G., & Frantz, L. A. F. (2019). Paleogenomics of Animal Domestication. In C. Lindqvist, & O. P. Rajora (Eds.), Paleogenomics: Genome-Scale Analysis of Ancient DNA (pp. 225–272). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Abstract: Starting with dogs, over 15,000 years ago, the domestication of animals has been central in the development of modern societies. Because of its importance for a range of disciplines – including archaeology, biology and the humanities – domestication has been studied extensively. This chapter reviews how the field of paleogenomics has revolutionised, and will continue to revolutionise, our understanding of animal domestication. We discuss how the recovery of ancient DNA from archaeological remains is allowing researchers to overcome inherent shortcomings arising from the analysis of modern DNA alone. In particular, we show how DNA, extracted from ancient substrates, has proven to be a crucial source of information to reconstruct the geographic and temporal origin of domestic species. We also discuss how ancient DNA is being used by geneticists and archaeologists to directly observe evolutionary changes linked to artificial and natural selection to generate a richer understanding of this fascinating process.
|
Péron, F., Ward, R., & Burman, O. (2013). Horses (Equus caballus) discriminate body odour cues from conspecifics. Animal Cognition, , 1–5.
Abstract: Knowledge about social recognition and memory in animals can help us to determine appropriate management and husbandry techniques. In this study, we used a habituation–discrimination procedure to investigate the ability of horses (Equus caballus) to distinguish between the body odour samples of unfamiliar conspecifics. To pick up body odour, we rubbed material on the coat of horses and presented these unknown body odours to 16 different conspecifics of the same sex and similar age. The test consisted of two successive two-min presentations of a sample from one individual (e.g. individual ‘A’) and a simultaneous presentation of samples from individual ‘A’ and a novel individual (e.g. individual ‘B’) during a final third presentation. The results showed that horses, regardless of sex, decreased the time they spent investigating conspecific body odour across the initial two presentations—demonstrating habituation. In the final presentation, the results demonstrated successful discrimination of the previously experienced odour because horses investigated the novel olfactory sample (‘B’) significantly more than the pre-exposed sample (‘A’). Taken together, these findings suggest, for the first time, that horses are able to discriminate two stimuli derived from body odours of unfamiliar conspecifics over short period of time.
|
van Schaik, C. P. (2010). Social learning and culture in animals. In P. Kappeler (Ed.), Animal Behaviour: Evolution and Mechanisms (pp. 623–653). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Abstract: Most animals must learn some of the behaviours in their repertoire, and some must learn most. Although learning is often thought of as an individual exercise, in nature much learning is social, i.e. under the influence of conspecifics. Social learners acquire novel information or skills faster and at lower cost, but risk learning false information or useless skills. Social learning can be divided into learning from social information and learning through social interaction. Different species have different mechanisms of learning from social information, ranging from selective attention to the environment due to the presence of others to copying of complete motor sequences. In vertical (or oblique) social learning, naïve individuals often learn skills or knowledge from parents (or other adults), whereas horizontal social learning is from peers, either immatures or adults, and more often concerns eavesdropping and public information use. Because vertical social learning is often adaptive, maturing individuals often have a preference for it over individual exploration. The more cognitively demanding social learning abilities probably evolved in this context, in lineages where offspring show long association with parents and niches are complex. Because horizontal learning can be maladaptive, especially when perishable information has become outdated, animals must decide when to deploy social learning. Social learning of novel skills can lead to distinct traditions or cultures when the innovations are sufficiently rare and effectively transmitted socially. Animal cultures may be common but to date taxonomic coverage is insufficient to know how common. Cultural evolution is potentially powerful, but largely confined to humans, for reasons currently unknown. A general theory of culture is therefore badly needed.
|
Kerth, G. (2010). Group decision-making in animal societies. In P. Kappeler (Ed.), Animal Behaviour: Evolution and Mechanisms (pp. 241–265). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Abstract: Individuals need to coordinate their activities to benefit from group living. Thus group decisions are essential for societies, especially if group members cooperate with each other. Models show that shared (democratic) decisions outperform unshared (despotic) decisions, even if individuals disagree about actions. This is surprising as in most other contexts, differences in individual preferences lead to sex-, age-, or kin-specific behaviour. Empirical studies testing the predictions of the theoretical models have only recently begun to emerge. This applies particularly to group decisions in fission-fusion societies, where individuals can avoid decisions that are not in their interest. After outlining the basic ideas and theoretical models on group decision-making I focus on the available empirical studies. Originally most of the relevant studies have been on social insects and fish but recently an increasing number of studies on mammals and birds have been published, including some that deal with wild long-lived animals living in complex societies. This includes societies where group members have different interests, as in most mammals, and which have been less studied compared to eusocial insects that normally have no conflict among their colony members about what to do. I investigate whether the same decision rules apply in societies with conflict and without conflict, and outline open questions that remain to be studied. The chapter concludes with a synthesis on what is known about group decision-making in animals and an outlook on what I think should be done to answer the open questions.
|
Calcagnoli, F., Boer, S. F., Althaus, M., Boer, J. A., & Koolhaas, J. M. (2013). Antiaggressive activity of central oxytocin in male rats. Psychopharmacology, 229(4), 639–651.
Abstract: Rationale A substantial body of research suggests that the
neuropeptide oxytocin promotes social affiliative behaviors
in a wide range of animals including humans. However, its
antiaggressive action has not been unequivocally demonstrated
in male laboratory rodents.
Objective Our primary goal was to examine the putative
serenic effect of oxytocin in a feral strain (wild type
Groningen, WTG) of rats that generally show a much
broader variation and higher levels of intermale aggression
than commonly used laboratory strains of rats.
Methods Resident animals were intracerebroventricularly
(icv) administered with different doses of synthetic oxytocin
and oxytocin receptor antagonist, alone and in combination,
in order to manipulate brain oxytocin functioning and to
assess their behavioral response to an intruder.
Results Our data clearly demonstrate that acute icv administered
oxytocin produces dose-dependent and receptorselective
changes in social behavior, reducing aggression
and potentiating social exploration. These antiaggressive
effects are stronger in the more offensive rats. On the other
hand, administration of an oxytocin receptor antagonist
tends to increase (nonsignificantly) aggression only in
low–medium aggressive animals.
Conclusions These results suggest that transiently enhancing
brain oxytocin function has potent antiaggressive effects,
whereas its attenuation tends to enhance aggressiveness. In
addition, a possible inverse relationship between trait aggression
and endogenous oxytocinergic signaling is revealed.
Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of brain
oxytocinergic signaling for regulating intermale offensive aggression.
This study supports the suggestion that oxytocin
receptor agonists could clinically be useful for curbing heightened
aggression seen in a range of neuropsychiatric disorders
like antisocial personality disorder, autism, and addiction.
|
