Abstract: “Contact” calls are widespread in social mammals and birds, but the proximate factors that motivate call production and mediate their contact function remain poorly specified. Field study of chacma baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) revealed that contact barks in adult females were motivated by separation both from the group at large and from their dependent infants. A variety of social and ecological factors affect the probability of separation from either one or both. Results of simultaneous observations and a playback experiment indicate that the contact function of calling between mothers and infants was mediated by occasional maternal retrieval rather than coordinated call exchange. Mothers recognized the contact barks of their own infants and often were strongly motivated to locate them. However, mothers did not produce contact barks in reply unless they themselves were at risk of becoming separated from the group.

Abstract: We measured horse density, social structure, habitat use, home ranges and altitudinal micro-climates in the south-western Kaimanawa ranges east of Waiouru, New Zealand. Horse density in the Auahitotara ecological sector averaged 3.6 horses.km-2 and ranged from 0.9 to 5.2 horses.km-2 within different zones. The population's social structure was like that of other feral horse populations with an even adult sex ratio, year round breeding groups (bands) with stable adult membership consisting of 1 to 11 mares, 1 to 4 stallions, and their predispersal offspring, and bachelor groups with unstable membership. Bands and bachelor males were loyal to undefended home ranges with central core use areas. Band home range sizes varied positively with adult band size. Home ranges overlapped entirely with other home ranges. Horses were more likely to occupy north facing aspects, short tussock vegetation and flush zones and avoid high altitudes, southern aspects, steeper slopes, bare ground and forest remnants. Horses were more likely to be on north facing aspects, steeper slopes, in exotic and red tussock grasslands and flush zones during winter and at lower altitudes and on gentler slopes in spring and summer. Seasonal shifts by bands to river basin and stream valley floors in spring and higher altitudes in autumn and winter are attributed to the beginning of foaling and mating in spring and formation of frost inversion layers in winter. Given horse habitat selectivity and the presence of other ungulate herbivores, results from present exclosures are likely to exaggerate the size of horse impacts on range vegetation. Proposals to manage the population by relocation and confinement are likely to modify current social structure and range use behaviour and may lead to the need for more intensive management in the longer term.

Abstract: My aim was to show how individual-oriented (or artificial life) models may provide an integrative background for the development of theories about dominance by including effects of spatial structure. Dominance interactions are thought to serve two different, contrasting functions: acquisition of high rank and reduction of aggression. The model I present consists of a homogeneous virtual world inhabited by artificial agents whose actions are restricted to grouping and dominance interactions in which the effects of winning and losing are self-reinforcing. The two functions are implemented as strategies to initiate dominance interactions and the intensity of aggression and dominance perception (direct or memory based) are varied experimentally. Behaviour is studied by recording the same behavioural units as in real animals. Ranks appear to differentiate more clearly at high than at low intensity of aggression and also more in the case of direct than of memory-based rank perception. Strong differentiation of rank produces a cascade of unexpected effects that differ depending on which function is implemented: for instance, a decline in aggression, spatial centrality of dominants and a correlation between rank and aggression. Insight into the origination of these self-organized patterns leads to new hypotheses for the study of the social behaviour of real animals.

Abstract: Raising endangered species in captivity for reintroduction necessarily results in animals that lack appropriate skills for coping with problems to be faced in the wild, such as predators. Using classical conditioning techniques involving linking fear of a live dog with the image of a fox, we demonstrate an adjusted fear response for two wallaby species (rufous bettongs Aepyprymnus rufescens, quokkas Setonix brachyurus). No differences in response to the fox were found for wild-caught and captive-born bettongs, even though wild-caught subjects were likely to have encountered canids prior to capture. Attempts to condition a fear response by quokkas to an odour were unsuccessful. An attempt to induce fear of the stuffed fox by linking to fear of humans in quokkas was unsuccessful, but quokkas generalised from fear of the dog to fear of the fox, despite a delay of several weeks. Trained dogs offer a valuable and ethically acceptable mechanism for improving the ability of captive-reared (or sequestered) animals to recognise and cope with predators.

Abstract: Stabled horses commonly perform stereotypic patterns of weaving, where the horse shifts its weight from side to side often swinging its head. Ten warm-blood types, of which five were known to reliably weave, were housed in similar 12x12 ft wooden loose boxes in a single stable block surrounding a courtyard. Each horse was exposed to each of five stable designs. These were: the conventional front top-half of the door open only with a view of the stable courtyard (F); front half-door open and a similar half-door open at the back of the stable with a view to the surrounding fields (FB); back open only (B); front and one-side panel open with a view into the adjacent stable (FS); and front, back and both sides open (All4). During observation days, horses were brought in from the field at 0830 h, fed concentrate at 0930 h, fed haylage at 1005 h and turned out at 1600 h. Behaviour was recorded from 0900 to 1040 h, 1200 to 1300 h and 1500 to 1600 h. Weaving was most common prior to feeding in the morning and prior to putting out to pasture in the afternoon. There was a significant effect of stable design on weaving, with less weaving in the FS and All4 designs than the F treatment. There was also a significant effect of stable design on repetitive nodding, though in this case, FB, B, FS and All4 designs each reduced nodding compared with the F treatment. The effect of stable design can be explained in a number of ways. Firstly, it could be the novelty of the environmental change, though there was no evidence in this study of an increase in stereotypy with prolonged exposure to the new stable designs. Secondly, opening windows may increase opportunities for environmental interaction, and the expression of new activities may compete with stereotypic behaviour for the horse's time. Thirdly, the open windows may allow expression of specific activities such as environmental monitoring or social interaction that are denied by the conventional stable.