Equine and Animal Cognition Reference Database -- Query Results

	Equine and Animal Cognition Reference Database Home \| Show All \| Simple Search \| Advanced Search	Login Quick Search: Field: contains: ...
	1-10 of 38 records found matching your query:

Search & Display Options

Select All Deselect All

<< 1 2 3 4 >>

List View

Citations

Details

	Records
	Author	Krueger, K.; Trager, L.; Farmer, K.; Byrne, R.
	Title	Tool Use in Horses			Type	Journal Article
	Year	2022	Publication	Animals	Abbreviated Journal	Animals
	Volume	12	Issue	15	Pages	1876
	Keywords	crowdsourcing; horse; innovation; mule; management; tool use
	Abstract	Tool use has not yet been confirmed in horses, mules or donkeys. As this subject is difficult to research with conventional methods, we used a crowdsourcing approach to gather data. We contacted equid owners and carers and asked them to report and video examples of â��unusualâ�� behaviour via a dedicated website. We also searched YouTube and Facebook for videos of equids showing tool use. From 635 reports, including 1014 behaviours, we found 20 cases of tool use, 13 of which were unambiguous in that it was clear that the behaviour was not trained, caused by reduced welfare, incidental or accidental. We then assessed (a) the effect of management conditions on tool use and (b) whether the animals used tools alone, or socially, involving other equids or humans. We found that management restrictions were associated with corresponding tool use in 12 of the 13 cases (p = 0.01), e.g., equids using sticks to scrape hay within reach when feed was restricted. Furthermore, 8 of the 13 cases involved other equids or humans, such as horses using brushes to groom others. The most frequent tool use was for foraging, with seven examples, tool use for social purposes was seen in four cases, and there was just one case of tool use for escape. There was just one case of tool use for comfort, and in this instance, there were no management restrictions. Equids therefore can develop tool use, especially when management conditions are restricted, but it is a rare occurrence.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Summary Language		Original Title
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title	Animals
	Series Volume	12	Series Issue	15	Edition
	ISSN	2076-2615	ISBN		Medium
	Area		Expedition		Conference
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	Equine Behaviour @ team @			Serial	6695
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Krueger, K.; Esch, L.; Byrne, R.
	Title	Need or opportunity? A study of innovations in equids			Type	Journal Article
	Year	2021	Publication	Plos One	Abbreviated Journal	Plos One
	Volume	16	Issue	9	Pages	e0257730
	Keywords
	Abstract	Debate persists over whether animals develop innovative solutions primarily in response to needs or conversely whether they innovate more when basic needs are covered and opportunity to develop novel behaviour is offered. We sourced 746 cases of “unusual” behaviour in equids by contacting equid owners and caretakers directly and via a website (https://innovative-behaviour.org), and by searching the internet platforms YouTube and Facebook for videos. The study investigated whether differences in need or opportunity for innovation were reflected in the numbers of different types of innovations and in the frequencies of repeating a once-innovative behaviour (i) with respect to the equids' sex, age, and breed type, (ii) across behavioural categories, and whether (iii) they were affected by the equids' management (single vs group housing, access to roughage feed, access to pasture, and social contact). We found that the numbers of different types of innovation and the frequency of displaying specific innovations were not affected by individual characteristics (sex, age, breed or equid species). Few types of innovation in escape and foraging contexts were observed, whilst the comfort, play, and social contexts elicited the greatest variety of innovations. We also found higher numbers of different types of innovations in horses kept in groups rather than in individual housing, and with unlimited rather than with restricted access to pasture and roughage. Equids in permanent social contact performed high rates of once-innovative behaviour. We suggest that equids produce goal-directed innovations and repeat the behaviour at high frequency in response to urgent needs for food and free movement or when kept in conditions with social conflict. However, equids devise the greatest variety of innovations when opportunity to play and to develop comfort behaviour arises and when kept in good conditions.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher	Public Library of Science	Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Summary Language		Original Title
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN		ISBN		Medium
	Area		Expedition		Conference
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	Equine Behaviour @ team @			Serial	6653
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Krueger, K.; Esch, L.; Byrne, R.
	Title	Animal behaviour in a human world: A crowdsourcing study on horses that open door and gate mechanisms			Type	Journal Article
	Year	2019	Publication	Plos One	Abbreviated Journal	Plos One
	Volume	14	Issue	6	Pages	e0218954
	Keywords
	Abstract	Anecdotal reports of horses opening fastened doors and gates are an intriguing way of exploring the possible scope of horses' problem-solving capacities. The species' natural environment has no analogues of the mechanisms involved. Scientific studies on the topic are missing, because the rate of occurrence is too low for exploration under controlled conditions. Therefore, we compiled from lay persons case reports of horses opening closed doors and gates. Additionally, we collected video documentations at the internet platform YouTube, taking care to select raw data footage of unedited, clearly described and clearly visible cases of animals with no distinct signs of training or reduced welfare. The data included individuals opening 513 doors or gates on hinges, 49 sliding doors, and 33 barred doors and gateways; mechanisms included 260 cases of horizontal and 155 vertical bars, 43 twist locks, 42 door handles, 34 electric fence handles, 40 carabiners, and 2 locks with keys. Opening was usually for escape, but also for access to food or stable-mates, or out of curiosity or playfulness. While 56 percent of the horses opened a single mechanism at one location, 44 percent opened several types of mechanism (median = 2, min. = 1, max. = 5) at different locations (median = 2, min. = 1, max. = 4). The more complex the mechanism was, the more movements were applied, varying from median 2 for door handles to 10 for carabiners. Mechanisms requiring head- or lip-twisting needed more movements, with significant variation between individuals. 74 horses reported in the questionnaire had options for observing the behaviour in stable mates, 183 did not, which indicates that the latter learned to open doors and gates either individually or from observing humans. Experience favours opening efficiency; subjects which opened several door types applied fewer movements per lock than horses which opened only one door type. We failed to identify a level of complexity of door-fastening mechanism that was beyond the learning capacity of the horse to open. Thus, all devices in frequent use, even carabiners and electric fence handles, are potentially vulnerable to opening by horses, something which needs to be considered in relation to keeping horses safely.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher	Public Library of Science	Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Summary Language		Original Title
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN		ISBN		Medium
	Area		Expedition		Conference
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	Equine Behaviour @ team @			Serial	6580
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Farmer, K.; Krüger, K.; Byrne, R.W.; Marr, I.
	Title	Sensory laterality in affiliative interactions in domestic horses and ponies (Equus caballus)			Type	Journal Article
	Year	2018	Publication	Animal Cognition	Abbreviated Journal	Anim. Cogn.
	Volume	21	Issue	5	Pages	631-637
	Keywords
	Abstract	Many studies have been carried out into both motor and sensory laterality of horses in agonistic and stressful situations. Here we examine sensory laterality in affiliative interactions within four groups of domestic horses and ponies (N = 31), living in stable social groups, housed at a single complex close to Vienna, Austria, and demonstrate for the first time a significant population preference for the left side in affiliative approaches and interactions. No effects were observed for gender, rank, sociability, phenotype, group, or age. Our results suggest that right hemisphere specialization in horses is not limited to the processing of stressful or agonistic situations, but rather appears to be the norm for processing in all social interactions, as has been demonstrated in other species including chicks and a range of vertebrates. In domestic horses, hemispheric specialization for sensory input appears not to be based on a designation of positive versus negative, but more on the perceived need to respond quickly and appropriately in any given situation.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Summary Language		Original Title
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1435-9456	ISBN		Medium
	Area		Expedition		Conference
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	Equine Behaviour @ team @ Farmer2018			Serial	6386
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Riley, J.L.; Noble, D.W.A.; Byrne, R.W.; Whiting, M.J.
	Title	Does social environment influence learning ability in a family-living lizard?			Type	Journal Article
	Year	2017	Publication	Animal Cognition	Abbreviated Journal	Anim. Cogn.
	Volume	20	Issue	3	Pages	449-458
	Keywords
	Abstract	Early developmental environment can have profound effects on individual physiology, behaviour, and learning. In birds and mammals, social isolation during development is known to negatively affect learning ability; yet in other taxa, like reptiles, the effect of social isolation during development on learning ability is unknown. We investigated how social environment affects learning ability in the family-living tree skink (Egernia striolata). We hypothesized that early social environment shapes cognitive development in skinks and predicted that skinks raised in social isolation would have reduced learning ability compared to skinks raised socially. Offspring were separated at birth into two rearing treatments: (1) raised alone or (2) in a pair. After 1 year, we quantified spatial learning ability of skinks in these rearing treatments (N = 14 solitary, 14 social). We found no effect of rearing treatment on learning ability. The number of skinks to successfully learn the task, the number of trials taken to learn the task, the latency to perform the task, and the number of errors in each trial did not differ between isolated and socially reared skinks. Our results were unexpected, yet the facultative nature of this species' social system may result in a reduced effect of social isolation on behaviour when compared to species with obligate sociality. Overall, our findings do not provide evidence that social environment affects development of spatial learning ability in this family-living lizard.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Summary Language		Original Title
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1435-9456	ISBN		Medium
	Area		Expedition		Conference
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	Equine Behaviour @ team @ Riley2017			Serial	6190
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Cochet, H.; Byrne, R.W.
	Title	Evolutionary origins of human handedness: evaluating contrasting hypotheses			Type	Journal Article
	Year	2013	Publication		Abbreviated Journal	Animal Cognition
	Volume	16	Issue	4	Pages	531-542
	Keywords	Hand preference; Hemispheric specialization; Communicative gestures; Evolution of language; Nonhuman primates; Human children
	Abstract	Variation in methods and measures, resulting in past dispute over the existence of population handedness in nonhuman great apes, has impeded progress into the origins of human right-handedness and how it relates to the human hallmark of language. Pooling evidence from behavioral studies, neuroimaging and neuroanatomy, we evaluate data on manual and cerebral laterality in humans and other apes engaged in a range of manipulative tasks and in gestural communication. A simplistic human/animal partition is no longer tenable, and we review four (nonexclusive) possible drivers for the origin of population-level right-handedness: skilled manipulative activity, as in tool use; communicative gestures; organizational complexity of action, in particular hierarchical structure; and the role of intentionality in goal-directed action. Fully testing these hypotheses will require developmental and evolutionary evidence as well as modern neuroimaging data.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher	Springer-Verlag	Place of Publication		Editor
	Language	English	Summary Language		Original Title
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1435-9448	ISBN		Medium
	Area		Expedition		Conference
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	Equine Behaviour @ team @			Serial	5691
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Hobaiter, C.; Byrne, R.
	Title	Serial gesturing by wild chimpanzees: its nature and function for communication			Type	Journal Article
	Year	2011	Publication	Animal Cognition	Abbreviated Journal	Anim. Cogn.
	Volume	14	Issue	6	Pages	827-838
	Keywords	Biomedizin & Life Sciences
	Abstract	Chimpanzees at Budongo, Uganda, regularly gesture in series, including ‘bouts’ of gesturing that include response waiting and ‘sequences’ of rapid-fire gesturing without pauses. We examined the distribution and correlates of 723 sequences and 504 bouts for clues to the function of multigesture series. Gesturing by older chimpanzees was more likely to be successful, but the success rate of any particular gesture did not vary with signaller age. Rather, older individuals were more likely to choose successful gestures, and these highly successful gestures were more often used singly. These patterns explain why bouts were recorded most in younger animals, whereas older chimpanzees relied more on single gestures: bouts are best interpreted as a consequence of persistence in the face of failure. When at least one gesture of a successful type occurred in a sequence, that sequence was more likely to be successful; overall, however, sequences were less successful than single gestures. We suggest that young chimpanzees use sequences as a ‘fail-safe’ strategy: because they have the innate potential to produce a large and redundant repertoire of gestures but lack knowledge of which of them would be most efficient. Using sequences increases the chance of giving one effective gesture and also allows users to learn the most effective types. As they do so, they need to use sequences less; sequences may remain important for subtle interpersonal adjustment, especially in play. This ‘Repertoire Tuning’ hypothesis explains a number of results previously reported from chimpanzee gesturing.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher	Springer Berlin / Heidelberg	Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Summary Language		Original Title
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1435-9448	ISBN		Medium
	Area		Expedition		Conference
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	Equine Behaviour @ team @			Serial	5426
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Hobaiter, C.; Byrne, R.
	Title	The gestural repertoire of the wild chimpanzee			Type	Journal Article
	Year	2011	Publication	Animal Cognition	Abbreviated Journal	Anim. Cogn.
	Volume	14	Issue	5	Pages	745-767
	Keywords	Biomedical and Life Sciences
	Abstract	Great ape gestural communication is known to be intentional, elaborate and flexible; yet there is controversy over the best interpretation of the system and how gestures are acquired, perhaps because most studies have been made in restricted, captive settings. Here, we report the first systematic analysis of gesture in a population of wild chimpanzees. Over 266 days of observation, we recorded 4,397 cases of intentional gesture use in the Sonso community, Budongo, Uganda. We describe 66 distinct gesture types: this estimate appears close to asymptote, and the Sonso repertoire includes most gestures described informally at other sites. Differences in repertoire were noted between individuals and age classes, but in both cases, the measured repertoire size was predicted by the time subjects were observed gesturing. No idiosyncratic usages were found, i.e. no gesture type was used only by one individual. No support was found for the idea that gestures are acquired by ‘ontogenetic ritualization’ from originally effective actions; moreover, in detailed analyses of two gestures, action elements composing the gestures did not closely match those of the presumed original actions. Rather, chimpanzee gestures are species-typical; indeed, many are ‘family-typical’, because gesture types recorded in gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzee overlap extensively, with 24 gestures recorded in all three genera. Nevertheless, chimpanzee gestures are used flexibly across a range of contexts and show clear adjustment to audience (e.g. silent gestures for attentive targets, contact gestures for inattentive ones). Such highly intentional use of a species-typical repertoire raises intriguing questions for the evolution of advanced communication.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher	Springer Berlin / Heidelberg	Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Summary Language		Original Title
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN	1435-9448	ISBN		Medium
	Area		Expedition		Conference
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	Equine Behaviour @ team @			Serial	5585
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Farmer, K.; Krueger, K.; Byrne, R.
	Title	*Visual laterality in the domestic horse (Equus caballus) interacting with humans*			Type	Journal Article
	Year	2010	Publication	Animal Cognition	Abbreviated Journal	Anim. Cogn.
	Volume	13	Issue		Pages	229-238
	Keywords	Horse – Laterality – Eye preference – Emotion – Vision
	Abstract	Most horses have a side on which they are easier to handle and a direction they favour when working on a circle, and recent studies have suggested a correlation between emotion and visual laterality when horses observe inanimate objects. As such lateralisation could provide important clues regarding the horseâ€™s cognitive processes, we investigated whether horses also show laterality in association with people. We gave horses the choice of entering a chute to left or right, with and without the passive, non-interactive presence of a person unknown to them. The left eye was preferred for scanning under both conditions, but significantly more so when a person was present. Traditionally, riders handle horses only from the left, so we repeated the experiment with horses specifically trained on both sides. Again, there was a consistent preference for left eye scanning in the presence of a person, whether known to the horses or not. We also examined horses interacting with a person, using both traditionally and bilaterally trained horses. Both groups showed left eye preference for viewing the person, regardless of training and test procedure. For those horses tested under both passive and interactive conditions, the left eye was preferred significantly more during interaction. We suggest that most horses prefer to use their left eye for assessment and evaluation, and that there is an emotional aspect to the choice which may be positive or negative, depending on the circumstances. We believe these results have important practical implications and that emotional laterality should be taken into account in training methods.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Summary Language		Original Title
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN		ISBN		Medium
	Area		Expedition		Conference
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	Equine Behaviour @ team @			Serial	4953
Permanent link to this record



	Author	Genty, E.; Byrne, R.
	Title	Why do gorillas make sequences of gestures?			Type	Journal Article
	Year	2010	Publication	Animal Cognition	Abbreviated Journal	Anim. Cogn.
	Volume	13	Issue	2	Pages	287-301
	Keywords	Great ape – Gestural communication – Syntax – Semantics – Interaction regulation
	Abstract	Abstract Great ape gestures have attracted considerable research interest in recent years, prompted by their flexible and intentional pattern of use; but almost all studies have focused on single gestures. Here, we report the first quantitative analysis of sequential gesture use in western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), using data from three captive groups and one African study site. We found no evidence that gesture sequences were given for reasons of increased communicative efficiency over single gestures. Longer sequences of repeated gestures did not increase the likelihood of response, and using a sequence was seldom in reaction to communicative failure. Sequential combination of two gestures with similar meanings did not generally increase effectiveness, and sometimes reduced it. Gesture sequences were closely associated with play contexts. Markov transition analysis showed two networks of frequently co-occurring gestures, both consisting of gestures used to regulate play. One network comprised only tactile gestures, the other a mix of silent, audible and tactile gestures; apparently, these clusters resulted from gesture use in play with proximal or distal contact, respectively. No evidence was found for syntactic effects of sequential combination: meanings changed little or not at all. Semantically, many gestures overlapped massively with others in their core information (i.e. message), and gesture messages spanned relatively few functions. We suggest that the underlying semantics of gorilla gestures is highly simplified compared to that of human words. Gesture sequences allow continual adjustment of the tempo and nature of social interactions, rather than generally conveying semantically referential information or syntactic structures.
	Address
	Corporate Author				Thesis
	Publisher		Place of Publication		Editor
	Language		Summary Language		Original Title
	Series Editor		Series Title		Abbreviated Series Title
	Series Volume		Series Issue		Edition
	ISSN		ISBN		Medium
	Area		Expedition		Conference
	Notes				Approved	no
	Call Number	Equine Behaviour @ team @			Serial	5114
Permanent link to this record

Select All Deselect All

<< 1 2 3 4 >>

Details

CQL Search | Library Search | Show Record | Extract Citations

Help