Maros, K., Boross, B., & Kubinyi, E. (2010). Approach and follow behaviour – possible indicators of the human-horse relationship. In Interaction Studies (Vol. 11, pp. 410–427).
Abstract: The aim of our study was to analyze the behavioural responses of horses (N = 51) to familiar humans and to find factors that may affect these responses in three tests: (1) approach to, (2) standing beside, and (3) following the familiar person. We investigated the impacts of horse-related factors (gender and age) and human-related factors (type of work, housing management, amount of handling, number of handlers and training to follow).<br xmlns=“http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/”></br> Horses with one handler needed less time to approach the human than horses with more handlers. Standing beside the human correlated positively with following. Following was mainly affected by training.<br xmlns=“http://pub2web.metastore.ingenta.com/ns/”></br> According to our results, the number of handlers has an important effect on horses' responses to familiar humans, especially regarding approach and follow behaviour. However, following behaviour is fundamentally determined by training.
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Bergmüller, R. (2010). Animal Personality and Behavioural Syndromes. In P. Kappeler (Ed.), Animal Behaviour – Evolution and Mechanisms (pp. 587–621). Heidelberg: Springer.
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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.
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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.
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Krueger, K. (2010). “Erfasst” das Pferd die menschliche Psyche". In M. Dettling, C. Opgen-Rhein, & M. Kläschen (Eds.), Pferdegestützte Therapie bei psychischen Erkrankungen (pp. 40–51). Stuttgart: Schattauer Verlag.
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Krueger, K. (2010). Das Pferd im Blickpunkt der Wissenschaft. Wald: Xenophon Verlag.
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Krueger, K., & Krueger, K. (2010). Trainingslehre für Dressurpferde [Training the Dressage Horse]. Wald: Xenophon Verlag.
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Primack, R. B. (2010). Essentials of conservation biology. Fifth: Edition.
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McCall, C. A., Hall, S., McElhenney, W. H., & Cummins, K. A. (2010). EVALUATION AND COMPARISON OF FOUR REACTIVITY TESTS IN HORSES. In Proc.17th Equine Nutr. Physiol. Symp (357). Lexington, KY.
Abstract: Four methods of ranking horses on reactivity were evaluated and compared: isolation from conspecifics, presentation of a static novel stimulus, traversing a novel stimulus in a runway (isolation, novel stimulus and runways tests, respectively) and assigning subjective emotionality scores. Forty horses performed each of the three tests daily on three different days in a switchback design where treatments were injection of a tranquilizer or vehicle. Horses were randomly assigned a daily test sequence, which was maintained throughout the study. In all tests, heart rates were recorded and behavior was videotaped. To be considered a valid test of reactivity, at least one heart rate and one behavioural measurement in the test had to show a significant difference due to tranquilization, and behavioural measures had to be displayed in at least 75% of the trials. In the runway test, no significant difference in heart rate values in tranquilized and non-tranquilized horses was found, and no behavioural attribute was displayed in more than 52% of the trials; therefore it was rejected as a valid test of reactivity. Both isolation and novel stimulus tests produced valid measurements. Mean heart rate was the most precise physiological measure for these tests, and walking and defecation frequency were the most precise behavioural measures for novel stimulus and isolation tests, respectively. Mean heart rates on the novel stimulus and isolation tests were correlated (rs=0.79, P<0.01) indicating that these tests produced similar rankings based on physiological responses. However, behavioural measures ranked horses differently (rs=0.27, P<0.10) on the tests. Rank correlations between mean heart rates and behavioural measures were higher in the novel stimulus (rs = 0.66, P<0.01) than the isolation test (rs = 0.55, P<0.01), indicating that the novel stimulus test ranked horses based on either physiological or behavioural responses more similarly than did the isolation test. Therefore, the novel stimulus test was considered the more accurate evaluation of reactivity. Subjective emotionality scores were correlated moderately with mean heart rates (rs > 0.33, P<0.01) from the novel stimulus and isolation tests and with walking scores (rs = 0.47, P<0.01) from the novel stimulus test. Assignment of subjective emotionality scores was not as accurate as the novel stimulus or isolation tests in ranking horses for reactivity. Using physiological data alone, combining physiological and behavioural measurements or using more than one behavioural measurement in reactivity tests may reflect the reactivity of the horse better than a single behavioural measurement.
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Sueur, C., Jacobs, A., Amblard, F., Petit, O., & King, A. J. (2010). How can social network analysis improve the study of primate behavior? Am. J. Primatol., 73(8), 703–719.
Abstract: Abstract When living in a group, individuals have to make trade-offs, and compromise, in order to balance the advantages and disadvantages of group life. Strategies that enable individuals to achieve this typically affect inter-individual interactions resulting in nonrandom associations. Studying the patterns of this assortativity using social network analyses can allow us to explore how individual behavior influences what happens at the group, or population level. Understanding the consequences of these interactions at multiple scales may allow us to better understand the fitness implications for individuals. Social network analyses offer the tools to achieve this. This special issue aims to highlight the benefits of social network analysis for the study of primate behaviour, assessing it's suitability for analyzing individual social characteristics as well as group/population patterns. In this introduction to the special issue, we first introduce social network theory, then demonstrate with examples how social networks can influence individual and collective behaviors, and finally conclude with some outstanding questions for future primatological research. Am. J. Primatol. 73:703?719, 2011. ? 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
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