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Author Young, L.E.; Rogers, K.; Wood, J.L.N. doi  openurl
  Title Left ventricular size and systolic function in Thoroughbred racehorses and their relationships to race performance Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Journal of Applied Physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) Abbreviated Journal J Appl Physiol  
  Volume (down) 99 Issue 4 Pages 1278-1285  
  Keywords *Adaptation, Physiological; Aging/physiology; Animal Husbandry; Animals; *Echocardiography; Female; Heart/*physiology; Heart Ventricles; Horses/*physiology; Male; *Physical Conditioning, Animal; Running/*physiology; Stroke Volume; Systole; Task Performance and Analysis  
  Abstract Cardiac morphology in human athletes is known to differ, depending on the sports-specific endurance component of their events, whereas anecdotes abound about superlative athletes with large hearts. As the heart determines stroke volume and maximum O(2) uptake in mammals, we undertook a study to test the hypothesis that the morphology of the equine heart would differ between trained horses, depending on race type, and that left ventricular size would be greatest in elite performers. Echocardiography was performed in 482 race-fit Thoroughbreds engaged in either flat (1,000-2,500 m) or jump racing (3,200-6,400 m). Body weight and sex-adjusted measures of left ventricular size were largest in horses engaged in jump racing over fixed fences, compared with horses running shorter distances on the flat (range 8-16%). The observed differences in cardiac morphologies suggest that subtle differences in training and competition result in cardiac adaptations that are appropriate to the endurance component of the horses' event. Derived left ventricular mass was strongly associated with published rating (quality) in horses racing over longer distances in jump races (P < or = 0.001), but less so for horses in flat races. Rather, left ventricular ejection fraction and left ventricular mass combined were positively associated with race rating in older flat racehorses running over sprint (<1,408 m) and longer distances (>1,408 m), explaining 25-35% of overall variation in performance, as well as being closely associated with performance in longer races over jumps (23%). These data provide the first direct evidence that cardiac size influences athletic performance in a group of mammalian running athletes.  
  Address Centre for Equine Studies, Animal Health Trust, Newmarket, Suffolk, UK. lesley.young@aht.org.uk  
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  ISSN 8750-7587 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:15920096 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 3768  
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Author Koenen, E.P.C.; Aldridge, L.I.; Philipsson, J. url  openurl
  Title An overview of breeding objectives for warmblood sport horses Type Journal Article
  Year 2004 Publication Livestock Production Science Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume (down) 88 Issue 1-2 Pages 77-84  
  Keywords Breeding objective; Sport horse; Sport performance; Conformation; Specialisation  
  Abstract The aim of this paper is to review the current breeding objectives of organisations that run a selection programme for warmblood riding horses in the light of an increasing trend in trade of semen across countries. In a questionnaire, 19 horse breeding organisations provided information on breeding objective traits. Variation both in length and amount of details used to define individual breeding objectives was large, reflecting that many traits in sport horse breeding are not easy to measure, and therefore, have to be defined in a subjective way. The majority of the breeding objectives included conformation, gaits and performance in show jumping and dressage. Some breeding objectives also included behaviour, soundness, health and fertility. However, several organisations did not specify the sport discipline and the level of competition (amateur, national or international level) in the breeding objective. In general, relative weightings of the traits within the verbally presented breeding objectives were not given, but were assessed by the organisations in response to this study. The relevance of more information on expected future production circumstances and on the genetic parameters of the traits of interest are discussed. A further review of the consistency, completeness and the number of traits of the present breeding objectives for sport horses is recommended to optimise the efficiency of selection decisions.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 3954  
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Author Visser, E.K.; Van Reenen, C.G.; Engel, B.; Schilder, M.B.H.; Barneveld, A.; Blokhuis, H.J. doi  openurl
  Title The association between performance in show-jumping and personality traits earlier in life Type Journal Article
  Year 2003 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume (down) 82 Issue 4 Pages 279-295  
  Keywords Personality; Performance; Horses; Prediction; Individual differences; Behavioural tests  
  Abstract For a horse to succeed in a show-jumping career, the individual has to possess both excellent physical abilities as well as a suitable personality to perform under challenging conditions. Forty-one Dutch Warmblood horses were used to develop personality tests and correlations between test variables and early training performances in jumping were studied. In behavioural tests, during the first 2 years of the horses' lives, personality aspects like emotionality, reactivity to human and learning abilities were quantified. At the age of 3, horses were broken and received early training in show-jumping. The inter-relationship between several performance variables measured during this early training phase were studied using principal component analysis (PCA). Variables measured in the different personality tests (novel-object test, handling test, avoidance-learning test and a reward-learning test) showed no correlations, suggesting that these tests all triggered different aspects of a horse's personality. This study indicates that it is possible to predict a substantial part of the show-jumping performance of an individual horse later in life by personality traits earlier in life.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 326  
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Author Wallin, L.; Strandberg, E.; Philipsson, J. url  openurl
  Title Genetic correlations between field test results of Swedish Warmblood Riding Horses as 4-year-olds and lifetime performance results in dressage and show jumping Type Journal Article
  Year 2003 Publication Livestock Production Science Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume (down) 82 Issue 1 Pages 61-71  
  Keywords Horse; Performance test; Competition results; Animal model; Heritability; Genetic correlation  
  Abstract The main objective of this study was to estimate genetic correlations between traits of young sport horses (4 years old) evaluated in the Swedish Riding Horse Quality Test (RHQT) and later competition results in dressage and show jumping. The data comprised 3708 Warmblood horses born between 1968 and 1982 that had participated in the RHQT as 4-year-olds and 25[punctuation space]605 horses born between 1953 and 1995 with competition records. According to the criteria between 1206 and 1879 horses were common to this two files and were available for the estimations of the genetic correlations. Competition performance traits were cumulative points and cumulative placings received during a horse's lifetime, and a log10 transformation was used to achieve a more normal distribution of the data. Genetic correlations between gait traits scored in the RHQT and competition results in dressage were favourable, in the range 0.63-0.75, and between jumping traits scored in the RHQT and results in show jumping 0.83-0.93. Estimated heritabilities for gait and jumping traits scored in the RHQT were in the range 0.09-0.27 and 0.10-0.18, respectively. Estimated heritabilities for the cumulative points and cumulative placings in dressage and show jumping were 0.17/0.16 and 0.23/0.27, respectively. Thus, the results from the RHQT have proved to be useful for early genetic evaluation and selection of both mares and stallions for sport performance traits.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 3956  
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Author Visser, E.K.; van Reenen, C.G.; Schilder, M.B.H.; Barneveld, A.; Blokhuis, H.J. doi  openurl
  Title Learning performances in young horses using two different learning tests Type Journal Article
  Year 2003 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume (down) 80 Issue Pages 311-326  
  Keywords Horse; Personality; Learning performance; Consistency; Emotionality  
  Abstract To achieve optimal performance in equine sports as well as in leisure not only the physical abilities of the horse should be considered, but also the horse's personality. Besides temperamental aspects, like emotionality, or the horse's reactivity towards humans in handling situations, the learning ability of the horse is another relevant personality trait. To study whether differences in learning performance are consistent over time and whether individual learning performance differs between learning tests or is affected by emotionality, 39 young horses (Dutch Warmblood) were tested repeatedly in two learning tests. An aversive stimulus (AS) was used in one learning test (the avoidance learning test) and a reward was used in the other learning test (the reward learning test). During both learning tests behaviour as well as heart rate were measured. Each test was executed four times, twice when horses were 1 year of age, and twice when they were 2 years of age. Half of the horses received additional physical training from 6 months onwards. In both tests horses could be classified as either performers, i.e. completing the daily session, or as non-performers, i.e. returning to the home environment without having completed the daily session. There were some indications that emotionality might have caused non-performing behaviour, but these indications are not convincing enough to exclude other causes. Furthermore, there seem to be no simple relationships between measures of heart rate, behavioural responses putatively related to emotionality and learning performance. Horses revealed consistent individual learning performances within years in both tests, and in the avoidance learning test also between years. There was no significant correlation between learning performances in the avoidance learning test and the learning performances in the reward learning test. It is concluded that individual learning abilities are consistent over a short time interval for an avoidance learning test and a reward learning test and over a longer time for the avoidance learning test. Furthermore, results indicate that some horses perform better when they have to learn to avoid an aversive stimulus while others perform better when they are rewarded after a correct response. It is suggested that these differences may be relevant to design optimal individual training programmes and methods.  
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  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 2009  
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Author Sterling, E.J.; Povinelli, D.J. openurl 
  Title Tool use, aye-ayes, and sensorimotor intelligence Type Journal Article
  Year 1999 Publication Folia Primatologica; International Journal of Primatology Abbreviated Journal Folia Primatol (Basel)  
  Volume (down) 70 Issue 1 Pages 8-16  
  Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Feeding Behavior; Female; *Intelligence; Male; Problem Solving; *Psychomotor Performance; Strepsirhini/*physiology/psychology  
  Abstract Humans, chimpanzees, capuchins and aye-ayes all display an unusually high degree of encephalization and diverse omnivorous extractive foraging. It has been suggested that the high degree of encephalization in aye-ayes may be the result of their diverse, omnivorous extractive foraging behaviors. In combination with certain forms of tool use, omnivorous extractive foraging has been hypothesized to be linked to higher levels of sensorimotor intelligence (stages 5 or 6). Although free-ranging aye-ayes have not been observed to use tools directly in the context of their extractive foraging activities, they have recently been reported to use lianas as tools in a manner that independently suggests that they may possess stage 5 or 6 sensorimotor intelligence. Although other primate species which display diverse, omnivorous extractive foraging have been tested for sensorimotor intelligence, aye-ayes have not. We report a test of captive aye-ayes' comprehension of tool use in a situation designed to simulate natural conditions. The results support the view that aye-ayes do not achieve stage 6 comprehension of tool use, but rather may use trial-and-error learning to develop tool-use behaviors. Other theories for aye-aye encephalization are considered.  
  Address Deutsches Primatenzentrum, Gottingen, Germany  
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  ISSN 0015-5713 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:10050062 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4178  
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Author Dunbar, R.I.M.; McAdam, M.R.; O'connell, S. doi  openurl
  Title Mental rehearsal in great apes (Pan troglodytes and Pongo pygmaeus) and children Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Behavioural Processes Abbreviated Journal Behav. Process.  
  Volume (down) 69 Issue 3 Pages 323-330  
  Keywords Algorithms; Animals; Child; Child, Preschool; Food; Frontal Lobe/anatomy & histology/physiology; Humans; *Imagination; Pan troglodytes; Pongo pygmaeus; Problem Solving/*physiology; Psychomotor Performance/physiology; Reward  
  Abstract The ability to rehearse possible future courses of action in the mind is an important feature of advanced social cognition in humans, and the “social brain” hypothesis implies that it might also be a feature of primate social cognition. We tested two chimpanzees, six orangutans and 63 children aged 3-7 years on a set of four puzzle boxes, half of which were presented with an opportunity to observe the box before being allowed to open it (“prior view”), the others being given without an opportunity to examine the boxes before handling them (“no prior view”). When learning effects are partialled out, puzzle boxes in the “prior view” condition were opened significantly faster than boxes given in the “no prior view” condition by the children, but not by either of the great apes. The three species differ significantly in the speed with which they opened boxes in the “no prior view” condition. The three species' performance on this task was a function of relative frontal lobe volume, suggesting that it may be possible to identify quantitative neuropsychological differences between species.  
  Address Evolutionary Psychology Research Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Biosciences Building, Crown Street, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK. rimd@liv.ac.uk  
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  ISSN 0376-6357 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:15896530 Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 2097  
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Author Kendal, R.L.; Coe, R.L.; Laland, K.N. doi  openurl
  Title Age differences in neophilia, exploration, and innovation in family groups of callitrichid monkeys Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication American journal of primatology Abbreviated Journal Am. J. Primatol.  
  Volume (down) 66 Issue 2 Pages 167-188  
  Keywords Age Factors; Analysis of Variance; Animals; *Animals, Zoo; Behavior, Animal/*physiology; Callitrichinae/*physiology; *Creativeness; Exploratory Behavior/*physiology; Observation; Social Behavior; Task Performance and Analysis  
  Abstract The prevailing assumption in the primate literature is that young or juvenile primates are more innovative than adult individuals. This innovative tendency among the young is frequently thought to be a consequence, or side effect, of their increased rates of exploration and play. Conversely, Reader and Laland's [International Journal of Primatology 22:787-806, 2001] review of the primate innovation literature noted a greater reported incidence of innovation in adults than nonadults, which they interpreted as (in part) a reflection of the greater experience and competence of older individuals. Within callitrichids there is contradictory evidence for age differences in response to novel objects, foods, and foraging tasks. By presenting novel extractive foraging tasks to family groups of callitrichid monkeys in zoos, we examined, in a large sample, whether there are positive or negative relationships of age with neophilia, exploration, and innovation, and whether play or experience most facilitates innovation. The results indicate that exploration and innovation (but not neophilia) are positively correlated with age, perhaps reflecting adults' greater manipulative competence. To the extent that there was evidence for play in younger individuals, it did not appear to contribute to innovation. The implications of these findings for the fields of innovation and conservation through reintroduction are considered.  
  Address Sub-Department of Animal Behavior, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. RachelKendal2003@yahoo.co.uk  
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  ISSN 0275-2565 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:15940712 Approved no  
  Call Number Serial 2148  
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Author Pepperberg, I.M. doi  openurl
  Title In search of king Solomon's ring: cognitive and communicative studies of Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) Type Journal Article
  Year 2002 Publication Brain, behavior and evolution Abbreviated Journal Brain Behav Evol  
  Volume (down) 59 Issue 1-2 Pages 54-67  
  Keywords *Animal Communication; Animals; Attention/physiology; Cognition/*physiology; Cues; Form Perception/physiology; Humans; Intelligence; Learning/physiology; Male; Models, Psychological; Parrots/*physiology; Psychomotor Performance/physiology; Reward; Social Behavior  
  Abstract During the past 24 years, I have used a modeling technique (M/R procedure) to train Grey parrots to use an allospecific code (English speech) referentially; I then use the code to test their cognitive abilities. The oldest bird, Alex, labels more than 50 different objects, 7 colors, 5 shapes, quantities to 6, 3 categories (color, shape, material) and uses 'no', 'come here', wanna go X' and 'want Y' (X and Y are appropriate location or item labels). He combines labels to identify, request, comment upon or refuse more than 100 items and to alter his environment. He processes queries to judge category, relative size, quantity, presence or absence of similarity/difference in attributes, and show label comprehension. He semantically separates labeling from requesting. He thus exhibits capacities once presumed limited to humans or nonhuman primates. Studies on this and other Greys show that parrots given training that lacks some aspect of input present in M/R protocols (reference, functionality, social interaction) fail to acquire referential English speech. Examining how input affects the extent to which parrots acquire an allospecific code may elucidate mechanisms of other forms of exceptional learning: learning unlikely in the normal course of development but that can occur under certain conditions.  
  Address The MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Mass. 02139, USA. impepper@media.mit.edu  
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  ISSN 0006-8977 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:12097860 Approved no  
  Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 579  
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Author Poti, P. doi  openurl
  Title Chimpanzees' constructional praxis (Pan paniscus, P. troglodytes) Type Journal Article
  Year 2005 Publication Primates Abbreviated Journal Primates  
  Volume (down) 46 Issue 2 Pages 103-113  
  Keywords Animals; *Cognition; *Discrimination Learning; Female; Male; Pan troglodytes/*physiology; Psychomotor Performance/*physiology; Spatial Behavior/*physiology; Species Specificity  
  Abstract This study investigated chimpanzees' spontaneous spatial constructions with objects and especially their ability to repeat inter-object spatial relations, which is basic to understanding spatial relations at a higher level than perception or recognition. Subjects were six chimpanzees-four chimpanzees and two bonobos-aged 6-21 years, all raised in a human environment from an early age. Only minor species differences, but considerable individual differences were found. The effect of different object samples was assessed through a comparison with a previous study. A common overall chimpanzee pattern was also found. Chimpanzees repeated different types of inter-object spatial relations such as insertion (I), or vertical (V), or next-to (H) relations. However chimpanzees repeated I or V relations with more advanced procedures than when repeating H relations. Moreover, chimpanzees never repeated combined HV relations. Compared with children, chimpanzees showed a specific difficulty in repeating H relations. Repeating H relations is crucial for representing and understanding multiple reciprocal spatial relations between detached elements and for coordinating independent positions in space. Therefore, the chimpanzees' difficulty indicates a fundamental difference in constructive space in comparison to humans. The findings are discussed in relation to issues of spatial cognition and tool use.  
  Address Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, CNR, via U. Aldrovandi 16b, 00197, Rome, Italy. p.poti@istc.cnr.it  
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  Language English Summary Language Original Title  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0032-8332 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes PMID:15378424 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2811  
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