Abstract: How animals use space has important consequences for feeding ecology, social organization, mating strategies and conservation management. In white rhinoceros, female home ranges are much larger than male territories, suggesting that movement patterns are influenced by factors other than resource distribution. In this study we placed radiotransmitters on 15 female white rhinoceros, recording 1758 locations and collecting behavioural data during 1671 observation sessions, making this the largest data set of its kind in this species. We investigated how habitat variables and male territories influenced female movement and reproductive behaviour. Female home ranges were approximately 20 km2 and core areas were 5 km2, with male territories roughly the same size as female core areas. Female range size did not vary with season, but the pattern of space use did vary. Females used grassland habitat preferentially, utilizing these areas significantly more than expected based on availability. Findings relevant to the mating strategy include: (1) the amount of grassland in a male's territory predicted female use of the territory; (2) the time that a female spent in a male's territory was a significant predictor of reproductive activity with the male, indicating that females probably mate with the most familiar male; and (3) the temporal pattern of female space use suggests that females did not increase mate sampling behaviour nor did they become more choosy about which males they visited when reproductively active. These findings suggest that males may maximize reproductive success by defending areas containing more grassland habitat.

Abstract: A computer-controlled push-door system was designed and tested as a method for measuring motivation. Eleven domestic hens were trained to use the push-door to gain access to food. They were deprived of food for 12 h or 43 h on 12 occasions and the push-door was used to measure the amount of “work” (measured as force × time) that they performed to gain access to a food reward. When deprived of food for 12 h the hens took significantly longer (P<0.01) to reach the required threshold of work, than when deprived for 43 h. This difference arose from the amount of time that the hens spent not pushing at the door. The problems encountered with this system and such an approach to measuring motivation are discussed.

Abstract: A previously described (Windschnurer et al., 2009) avoidance distance test was used to assess animals’ fear of humans in order to quantify the human–animal relationship (HAR). This study investigated the influence of the dominant and flightiest animals within a group on the responsiveness of animals during the avoidance distance test. Eighty-eight pregnant heifers comprised of four different genotypes were used (22 animals per genotype): Limousin × Holstein-Friesian, Limousin × Simmental, Charolais × Limousin, and Charolais × Simmental. Sixty of the 88 heifers were group housed (n = 5) into 12 pens with 3 pens per breed, while 28 heifers were singly housed (seven heifers per breed). A reactivity test was performed on days 10, 18, 25 and 30 post-housing on the singly housed heifers, and then on the group housed heifers, on the same days, to calculate a reactivity score. On days 33 and 37 flight and dominance tests, respectively, were performed to identify the flightiest and the dominant animal within each group. On day 41, an avoidance test, measuring both the avoidance distance towards a familiar and an unfamiliar human, was performed on all heifers. No difference (P > 0.05) in reactivity scores was found between the genotypes, between pens for the group housed heifers or between singly housed and group housed heifers (P = 0.28). The avoidance distance (AD) of singly (S) housed heifers towards a familiar (F) (ADSF) human was shorter (P < 0.001) than the avoidance distance of group (G) housed heifers towards an unfamiliar human (ADSU). The ADSF and ADGF were correlated with the ADSU and ADGU (R = 0.87 for singly housed heifers; R = 0.61 for group housed heifers, P < 0.001). For the singly housed heifers, no correlation was observed between reactivity score and ADSF (R = 0.36, P = 0.18), whereas the reactivity score and ADSU were correlated (R = 0.68, P = 0.004). For the group housed heifers no significant correlation was detected between the reactivity score and ADGF (R = 0.18, P = 0.22) or ADGU (R = &#8722;0.11, P = 0.39). No influence of the most dominant animal and the flightiest animals was found on the behaviour of the group in term of avoidance distance and reactivity (P > 0.05). It is concluded that the assessment of the fear of the animals towards humans using the avoidance test at the feed bunk may be useful for singly and group housed heifers and that the leaders of a group such as the flightiest animal or the dominant animal did not influence the avoidance distance test.

Abstract: Operant conditioning and two choice preference tests were used to assess the motivation of horses to be released from straight and from box stalls. The motivations for food, a companion, and release into a paddock were compared when the horses had to work for each commodity at increasing fixed ratios of responses (panel presses) to reward in an equine operant conditioning stall. The motivation for food (mean ± SEM = 258 ± 143) responses was much greater than that for either release (38 ± 32) from a straight stall into a large paddock alone or into a small paddock with another horse (95 ± 41) (P = 0.04). When given a two choice preference test between exercise on a treadmill for 20 min or returning to their box stalls, eight of nine horses chose to return to their stalls. In a two choice preference test six of eight horses in box stalls chose to be released into a paddock alone. Horses were given a series of two choice preference tests to determine how long they preferred to be in a paddock. After 15 min in the paddock the horses were re-tested, but all chose the paddock when released into a paddock with three other horses. They were retested every 15 min until they chose to return to their stalls. They chose to stay out for 35 ± 6 min when other horses were in the paddock but for only 17 ± 2 min when they would be alone. When deprived of stall release for 48 h the horses chose to remain in the paddock with other horses for 54 ± 6 min, but showed no compensatory behavior when they were alone (duration chosen = 16 ± 4 min). These findings indicate that horses are not strongly motivated to exercise alone and will choose not to endure forced exercise on a treadmill. The social context of voluntary exercise is important; horses are willing to stay out of their stalls longer if other horses are present and will show compensatory behavior only if other horses are present. These finding have implications for optimizing turnout time for stalled horses.

Abstract: The ability of horses to habituate to frightening stimuli greatly increases safety in the horse-human relationship. A recent experiment suggested, however, that habituation to frightening visual stimuli is relatively stimulus-specific in horses and that shape and colour are important factors for object generalisation (Christensen et al., 2008). In a series of experiments, we aimed to further explore the ability of horses (n = 30, 1 and 2-year-old mares) to recognise and generalise between objects during habituation. TEST horses (n = 15) were habituated to a complex object, composed of five simple objects of varying shape and colour, whereas CONTROL horses (n = 15) were habituated to the test arena, but not to the complex object. In the first experiment, we investigated whether TEST horses subsequently reacted less to i) simple objects that were previously part of the complex object (i.e. testing for object recognition) and ii) a novel object (new shape and colour, i.e. testing for object generalisation), compared to CONTROLS. In the second experiment we investigated whether TEST horses reacted to a change in object order and object location. Behavioural reactions to the object, latency to eat, total eating time and heart rate were recorded. Compared to CONTROLS, TEST horses reacted significantly less towards objects, which were previously part of the complex object (e.g. mean heart rate; P = 0.006), indicating object recognition. In contrast to our expectations, TEST horses also reacted significantly less towards the novel object (e.g. mean heart rate; P = 0.018), suggesting that they were capable of object generalisation. We also found that TEST horses showed an increase in exploratory behaviour when objects within the complex object changed order and location (both P < 0.001), whereas there was no increase in heart rate, indicating that the horses were not frightened by the changes. The results demonstrate that it is possible to increase object generalisation in horses by habituating them to a range of colours and shapes simultaneously. This knowledge greatly affects the way in which horses may be trained to react calmly towards frightening objects.