Abstract: Herding behavior in ungulates is executed mainly by males. There are several forms of herding: guarding a single estrous female; rounding up a bunch of females during the rutting season; territorial herding by which a male keeps females inside his territory; herding of a moving, permanent, harem group; social herding in which group members of both sexes are herded by one dominant male. When put into this sequence, a phenotypical trend is illustrated, leading from an intimate connection of herding with mating behavior toward an increasing independence from sexual behavior and culminating in a complete socialization of herding. Aspects and problems of herding behavior are the recognition of, and the animal's respect for, partners in gregarious species; the animal “taking offense” at activities of others which deviate from its own activity; the active coordination and synchronization of group activities; the use of, and the effects of, threat, dominance and courtship displays in herding; the possibility of substitution among expressive displays in relation to partners of different sex; the communicative function of the animal's orientation relative to the partner; social hierarchy and leadership in a group; the possibility of interspecific herding, particularly in man-animal relationships, which is closely linked to the process of domestication.

Abstract: Eight mares were tested to determine if they remained near one of two stallions longer than would be expected if association was random. Six stallions were paired in 30 combinations and each mare was tested 30 times. The mares (Equus caballus) demonstrated a definite preference for individual stallions throughout the breeding season. This preference was influenced by the estrous state of the mare. During estrus, mares' preferences for stallions were positively correlated with the rate at which a given stallion vocalized. During diestrus, mares spent significantly less time in the proximity of stallions and did not exhibit any preference for individual stallions.

Abstract: The social behaviour of two groups of Merino ewes and one group of Merino x Border Leicester ewes was studied. Each group comprised eight sheep, 15 months of age and, within each group, the animals were of similar liveweight. Dominance rankings were established at each test, but there was little consistency in ewe rank over time. Similarly, little consistency was found in ewe ranking for movement order between pens, and for exploratory and fear test rankings. However, with tests on movement orders, some consistency in the sheep which ranked first was shown. In the field, no aggression was seen while sheep were grazing and there were no occasions when ranking related to movement could be observed. There were short-term associations between pairs of sheep, but these occurred in less than half the individuals. Although the spatial distribution was not studied, the lack of long-term association between pairs would suggest that strong spatial preference does not occur. It is concluded that the social organization of single-age Merino and Merino x Border Leicester ewes is not based on dominance or leadership ranking nor on long-term associations between individuals.

Abstract: In contrast to horses in pastures, it is thought that free-ranging horses do not perform latrine behaviour, i.e. a behavioural pattern whereby the animals graze and defecate in separate areas. However, few studies deal with this particular subject, reporting contrasting conclusions. We hypothesize that horses free-ranging in large heterogeneous areas do not perform latrine behaviour. Thus, we believe that grazing and elimination behaviour are spatially related: where horses graze, they will also defecate. Behavioural data were collected from Konik horses, Haflinger horses, Shetland ponies and donkeys, grazing in different nature reserves (54-80 ha). Data for the different equids were analyzed separately, as well as data for mares and stallions (Konik and donkey stallions only). We investigated the proportion of the number of defecations/urinations while grazing on the total number of defecations/urinations; furthermore, we searched for the sequence of behaviours representing latrine behaviour in the strict sense. Additionally, we analyzed the correlation between grazing behaviour and eliminative behaviour on both vegetation type level and patch level. All the female equids often continued grazing while defecating. During urination, grazing ceases in the majority of instances. Cases where a mare terminated grazing in a certain vegetation type and sward height to eliminate in another vegetation type or in another sward height within the same vegetation type were rarely observed. On the vegetation type level as well as on the patch level, there was a highly significant (P<0.001) positive correlation between grazing time and number of eliminations (or eliminating time). The high values of the correlation coefficients (in case of the defecation variables r ranges between 0.553 and 0.955; in case of the urination variables r ranges between 0.370 and 0.839) illustrate that the spatial distribution of the eliminative behaviour can be explained to a high degree by the spatial distribution of the grazing behaviour. Results in the case of the stallions are preliminary, but indicate the same pattern. Horses, free-ranging in large heterogeneous areas, do not perform latrine behaviour, but defecate where they graze. Possibly, animal density is of major importance to explain this behavioural difference with horses in pastures. We suggest that also spatial vegetation heterogeneity and plant productivity of the grazed area, as well as parasite status of the grazing animals could play a role.

Abstract: Social dominance is a multidimensional phenomenon occurring in all gregarious farm animals and finds its reflection in a dominance hierarchy. Hence, numerous studies have tried to analyse dominance relationships as well as to correlate outcoming results (mostly individual ranks) with other behavioural and/or physiological features of the animals. Although the concept of dominance, once established, has been developed continuously and several sociometric measures were cumulatively introduced, a consistent analysing approach has not been achieved, especially in farm animals. Thus, considerable inconsistencies in the used methodology may impair obtained results and interpretations. The present paper is a plea for a more standardised and complex approach when analysing dominance relationships, not only in farm animals. First, derived from a structural definition of dominance, we suggest in detail the preferably consistent use of appropriate sociometric measures at all social levels of analysis: the dyad as the starting level, the group as the highest level, and the individual as the basic level. Second, we applied this procedures in a case study to analyse social dominance in a group of dwarf goats (n=12) and pigs (n=10), respectively, to comparatively demonstrate benefits and problems of such an approach in two different farm animal species. It is concluded that the use of individual ranks is actually only reasonable when fundamental sociometric measures both at the dyadic level (e.g. percentage of dyads which have a significant asymmetric outcome) and at the group level (e.g. the strength of hierarchy) are successfully tested by statistical methods as also presented in this paper. The calculated sociometric measures deliver not only a more comprehensive “picture” of the social relationships within a group as simple ranks do, but also indicate possible reasons of differences in the behavioural development. For instance, whereas the dwarf goats maintained a quasi-linear dominance hierarchy over time with a high rate of overt agonistic behaviour, pigs after the establishment of their hierarchy showed a reduced agonistic behaviour which makes it questionable to calculate reliable sociometric measures. These species-dependent variations may be primarily caused by different kinds of the fighting behaviour in goats (i.e. ritualised, low costs) and pigs (i.e. more seriously, high costs). Overall, a more consistent and standardised approach of analysing social dominance in (farm) animals may improve the scientific value of single studies and makes it easier to compare various studies within a species and between species.