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Author |
Hollenhorst, H.; Weil, S.; Krueger, K. |
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Title |
Innovative behavour in horses (Equus caballus) |
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Conference Article |
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Year |
2015 |
Publication |
Proceedings of the 3. International Equine Science Meeting |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc. 3. Int. Equine. Sci. Mtg |
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innovative behavior, age, housing system, horse (Equus caballus) |
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Contrary to the widely-spread assumption that horses just have restricted cognitive capacities and are not very flexible in their behaviors, we showed that horses display innovative behavior and even make use of tools (Krueger 2015, Krueger et al. 2015). These findings derive from a database (http://innovative-behaviour.org/) the Equine behavior team managed in the past two years. Some horses did not only show single innovations, but several different innovations. The number of innovations per individual varied from 1 to 10. 20 % of all innovative horses in the database showed more than one innovation. These individuals can be called the ‘true innovators’. Moreover innovations were dependent on age. Young horses were more innovative than older ones, whereby horses at the age of five to nine years were the most innovative. When considering the housing system innovative horses in a single housing (inside box, outside box, paddock box) had a slight majority towards horses in group housing (open stable, active stable, pasture day and night). But given the fact that ratings on housing system frequencies state 95% of the horses to be kept in individual housing, innovations in individual housing are rare. Nevertheless, horses kept in inside boxes without a window, opened doors more often than all other horses. Aside from this effect, housing systems did not trigger the frequency of innovative behavior. Innovations for gaining freedom and innovations in general were widespread among horses with daily access to pasture and daily contact with conspecifics. Innovations for gaining food were not more likely to occur in horses that were fed little amounts of roughage. In conclusion, the housing of horses does not seem to be the primary catalyst for developing innovative behavior in horses. What makes a “true innovator” in horses, in addition to age, remains to be seen. |
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Hollenhorst, H. |
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Xenophon Publishing |
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Wald |
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; Krueger, K. |
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Proc. 3. Int. Equine. Sci. Mtg |
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978-3-95625-000-2 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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5896 |
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Goursot, C.; Düpjan, S.; Puppe, B.; Leliveld, L.M.C. |
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Title |
Affective styles and emotional lateralization: A promising framework for animal welfare research |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2021 |
Publication |
Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
Abbreviated Journal |
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. |
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Volume |
237 |
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105279 |
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Individuality; Motor lateralization; Hemispheric dominance; Motivational tendencies; Emotional reactivity; Emotional regulation |
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The growing recognition of animals as individuals has broader implications for farm animal welfare research. Even under highly standardized on-farm conditions, farm animals show heterogeneous but individually consistent behavioural patterns towards various stimuli, based on how they appraise these stimuli. As a result, animal welfare is likely to be highly individual as well, and studying the proximate mechanisms underlying distinct individual behaviour patterns and appraisal will improve animal welfare research. We propose to extend the framework of affective styles to bridge the gap between existing research fields on animal personality and affective states. Affective styles refer to consistent individual differences in emotional reactivity and regulation and can be predicted by baseline cerebral lateralization. Likewise, animals with consistent left or right motor biases--a proxy measure of individual patterns in cerebral lateralization--have been shown to differ in their personality, emotional reactivity, motivational tendencies or coping styles. In this paper, we present the current knowledge of the links between laterality and stable individual traits in behaviour and affect in light of hypotheses on emotional lateralization. Within our suggested framework, we make recommendations on how to investigate affective styles in non-human animals and give practical examples. This approach has the potential to promote a science of affective styles in nonhuman animals and significantly advance research on animal welfare. |
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0168-1591 |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6698 |
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Author |
Tibbetts, E.A. |
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Title |
Visual signals of individual identity in the wasp Polistes fuscatus |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2002 |
Publication |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. |
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269 |
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1423 |
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1423-1428 |
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hymenoptera; individual-recognition; learning-insect |
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Individual recognition is an essential component of interactions in many social systems, but insects are often thought incapable of the sophistication necessary to recognize individuals. If this were true, it would impose limits on the societies that insects could form. For example, queens and workers of the paper wasp Polistes fuscatus form a linear dominance hierarchy that determines how food, work and reproduction are divided within the colony. Such a stable hierarchy would be facilitated if individuals of different ranks have some degree of recognition. P. fuscatus wasps have, to our knowledge, previously undocumented variability in their yellow facial and abdominal markings that are intriguing candidates for signals of individual identity. Here, I describe these highly variable markings and experimentally test whether P. fuscatus queens and workers use these markings to identify individual nest-mates visually. I demonstrate that individuals whose yellow markings are experimentally altered with paint receive more aggression than control wasps who are painted in a way that does not alter their markings. Further, aggression declines towards wasps with experimentally altered markings as these novel markings become familiar to their nestmates. This evidence for individual recognition in P. fuscatus indicates that interactions between insects may be even more complex than previously anticipated.
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ 929 |
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4732 |
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Author |
Waiblinger, S.; Boivin, X.; Pedersen, V.; Tosi, M.-V.; Janczak, A.M.; Visser, E.K.; Jones, R.B. |
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Title |
Assessing the human-animal relationship in farmed species: A critical review |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2006 |
Publication |
Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
Abbreviated Journal |
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. |
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Volume |
101 |
Issue |
3-4 |
Pages |
185-242 |
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Human-animal relationships; Farm animals; Tests; Assessment; Welfare |
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The present paper focuses on six main issues. First, we briefly explain why an increased understanding of the human-animal relationship (HAR) is an essential component of any strategy intended to improve the welfare of farmed animals and their stockpersons. Second, we list the main internal and external factors that can influence the nature of the relationship and the interactions between human beings and farm animals. Third, we argue that the numerous tests that have been used to assess the HAR fall into three main categories (stationary human, moving human, handling/restraint), according to the degree of human involvement. Fourth, the requirements that any test of HAR must fulfil before it can be considered effective, and the ways in which the tests can be validated are discussed. Fifth, the various types of test procedures that have been used to assess the HAR in a range of farmed species are reviewed and critically discussed. Finally, some research perspectives that merit further attention are shown. The present review embraces a range of farmed animals. Our primary reasons for including a particular species were: whether or not general interest has been expressed in its welfare and its relationship with humans, whether relevant literature was available, and whether it is farmed in at least some European countries. Therefore, we include large and small ruminants (cattle, sheep, goats), pigs, poultry (chickens), fur animals (foxes, mink) and horses. Although horses are primarily used for sport, leisure or therapy they are farmed as draught, food or breeding animals in many countries. Literature on the HAR in other species was relatively scarce so they receive no further mention here. |
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refbase @ user @ |
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854 |
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Waiblinger, S.; Menke, C.; Korff, J.; Bucher, A. |
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Title |
Previous handling and gentle interactions affect behaviour and heart rate of dairy cows during a veterinary procedure |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
2004 |
Publication |
Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
Abbreviated Journal |
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. |
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85 |
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1-2 |
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31-42 |
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Human-animal relationship; Cattle; Handling; Stress; Heart rate; Welfare |
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Veterinary and management procedures often are aversive to the animals, resulting in physiological and behavioural stress reactions, which increase the risk of accidents and might lower performance. We investigated the effects of previous positive handling and of gentle interactions during the procedure on behaviour and heart rate in dairy cows during rectal palpation with sham insemination. Twenty cows were allocated randomly into two groups of 10 animals: handling, received additional positive handling over a period of four weeks by one person (handler); control, only routine handling by different caretakers. The week after the handling period, tests lasting 9 min, including 4 min rectal palpation, were carried out with each animal on four successive days in four situations in a balanced order: cow is alone during the test, with the handler, with an usual caretaker, or with an unknown person. Behaviour and heart rate were recorded. Previously handled animals had lower heart rate during tests (P<=0.05, n=19), kicked less when alone (P<=0.05, n=19) and tended to show less restless behaviour (P<=0.1, n=19). Cows were further calmed by gentle interactions during the test, but people differed remarkably. Cows showed less restless behaviour when gentled by the handler, both in the 4 min of rectal palpation and in the 9 min test period (each: P<=0.001, n=19). No significant stress reducing effect was found for the other two persons. In conclusion, stress reactions of cows during rectal palpation/insemination can be reduced by previous positive handling as well as by a person providing positive, gentle interactions during the procedure. The results underline the importance of positive, gentle interactions with the animals to enhance animal welfare and reduce the risk of accidents. They also show that people differ in the success to calm down the animals in aversive situations and indicate the need to investigate the characteristics responsible for the differences and identify the preconditions for a stress reducing effect in future research. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4397 |
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Author |
Wyss, C. |
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Title |
Does housing in a „social box“ change faecal cortisol metabolites concentration in stallions? |
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Conference Article |
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Year |
2015 |
Publication |
Proceedings of the 3. International Equine Science Meeting |
Abbreviated Journal |
Proc. 3. Int. Equine. Sci. Mtg |
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housing system, stallions, social interaction, stress, faecal cortisol metabolites |
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In order to improve the housing conditions of stallions in individual boxes by offering a possibility to have more social contact, the Swiss national stud farm tested a new box system for horses, allowing increased physical contact with the neighbouring stallion. The aim of this part of the study was to investigate whether this type of housing system (named “social box”) potentially induces a change in stress reactions in stallions compared to conventional boxes. Therefore faecal cortisol metabolite (FCM) concentration was measured as a non-invasive parameter to assess endocrine responses related to this new environment.
Four groups each consisting of eight adult Freiberger breeding stallions were included in the test design. Every stallion spent three weeks in a conventional box and in a social box respectively (cross-over design). The conventional box consisted of a separation wall with a lower opaque part and an upper part with vertical barriers (5 cm between barriers), allowing visual and olfactory contact but strongly limiting tactile contact. The separating wall of the social box consisted of two lateral sections, one part being opaque to the ceiling and the second part consisting of vertical barriers (30 cm between barriers), allowing the horse to have physical contact with its neighbour or to avoid it.
In horses, FCM concentration reflects an average level of circulating cortisol over a period of approximatively 24h. Faecal samples were collected the day following integration in social / conventional boxes, reflecting the potential stress induced by increased social interactions during the integration. In order to asses potential chronical stress, faeces samples were also collected in week one, two and three after the integration into the social / conventional box (in total: 4 samples per horse and housing system). The samples were immediately stored at -20°C until they were analysed. The samples were not analysed in the laboratory until the end of the experiment, therefore the duration of conservation in the freezer varied from 40 to 429 days.
A considerable percentage of data from groups 1 and 2 was below the detection limit (<0.8 ng/g) (Tab. 1). Thus the statistical analysis was conducted with the FCM concentration from groups 3 and 4 (n horses = 16) which contained no values below the detection limit.
Tab. 1: Details about FCM values and storage time for the 4 groups of stallions
Group Storage duration [d] Proportion of data below the detection limit (<0.8 ng/g) Mean [ng/g] Median [ng/g]
Group 1 384-429 55.6 % 2.2 0
Group 2 315-360 25.5 % 5.8 6.3
Group 3 41-79 0.0 % 8.7 8.0
Group 4 40-85 0.0 % 5.8 5.4
Despite the impressive social interactions observed between the stallions directly after being introduced into the social boxes, we did not find any differences in FCM concentration between the stallions being introduced into the conventional box and the social box on the day of integration (social box: n samples = 16, mean±SD: 6.9±4.7 ng/g; conventional box: n samples = 16, mean±SD: 9.0±11.2 ng/g; Wilcoxon signed rank test V = 70, p = 0.94).
Overall the samples taken during integration and in week one, two and three did not show evidence of changes in FCM concentration in either housing system over a longer period of time (social box: n samples = 64, mean±SD: 7.9±6.2 ng/g; conventional box: n samples = 64, mean±SD: 6.6±3.4 ng/g; Linear mixed model (LMM), p = 0.56).
Our results suggest that the possibility of having physical contact with a conspecific does not induce changes in FCM concentration in breeding stallions. The considerable percentage of values below the detection limit in groups 1 and 2 seemed to correlate with the increasing duration of storage before analysis. During the IESM Network Meeting 2015, we would like to discuss possible methodological issues and the possibilities to correctly integrate these low values in the statistical analysis. |
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Wyss, C. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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5869 |
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Author |
Smith, S.; Goldman, L. |
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Title |
Color discrimination in horses |
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Journal Article |
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Year |
1999 |
Publication |
Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
Abbreviated Journal |
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. |
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62 |
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1 |
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13-25 |
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Horses; Vision; Color; Discrimination; Behavior |
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Four Arabian horses and one Thoroughbred were presented with a series of two-choice color vs. gray discrimination problems. Testing was done in a stall containing a wall with two translucent panels that were illuminated from behind by light projected through color or gray filters to provide the discriminative stimuli. Horses first learned to push one of the panels in order to receive the food reward behind the positive stimulus in an achromatic light-dark discrimination task, and were then tested on their ability to discriminate between gray and four individual colors: red (617 nm), yellow (581 nm), green (538 nm), and blue (470 nm). The criterion for learning was set at 85% correct responses, and final testing for all color vs. gray discriminations involved grays of varying intensities, making brightness an irrelevant cue. Three subjects were tested with all four colors. Two of those subjects successfully reached the criterion for learning on all four color vs. gray discriminations, while the third reached criterion with red and blue, but performed at chance levels for yellow and green. A fourth horse was only tested with green and yellow, and a fifth only with blue, and both of those horses successfully reached criterion on the discriminations they attempted. With the exception of the one subject's poor performance with yellow and green, there was no significant difference between horses on any of the discrimination tasks, and no significant difference in their performance with different colors. The results suggest that horses have color vision that is at least dichromatic, although partial color-blindness may occur in some individuals. |
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850 |
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Golynski, M.; Szczepanik, M.P.; Wilkolek, P.M.; Adamek, L.R.; Sitkowski, W.; Taszkun, I. |
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Influence of hair clipping on transepidermal water loss values in horses: a pilot study |
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2018 |
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Polish Journal of Veterinary Sciences |
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vol. 21 |
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No 1 |
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horses; transepidermal water loss; clipping |
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University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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6612 |
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Anderson, M.K.; Friend, T.H.; Evans, J.W.; Bushong, D.M. |
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Behavioral assessment of horses in therapeutic riding programs |
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Journal Article |
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1999 |
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Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
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Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. |
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63 |
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1 |
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11-24 |
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Horses; Therapeutic riding; Temperament; Cortisol; Catecholamines |
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A behavioral assessment of horses who were being used and not used in therapeutic riding programs was conducted to help determine useful methods of selecting horses for use in therapeutic riding programs. A total of 103 horses (76 horses from five therapeutic riding centers and 27 non-therapeutic riding horses from four sites) were used. Temperament survey for each horse were completed by three riding instructors at each therapeutic riding center or by the individual most knowledgeable about the horse at the other sites. Twenty personality traits from the survey were used to quantify temperament. Concentrations of plasma cortisol, norepinephrine and epinephrine were also measured in each horse. A reactivity test was then conducted which involved introducing three novel stimuli: a walking and vocalizing toy pig placed on a cardboard surface in front of the horse for 20 s; popping a balloon near the horse's flank area; and suddenly opening an umbrella and holding it open in front of the horse for 20 s. Reactions (expressions, vocalizations and movement) to each of the stimuli were scored and used to calculate an average reactivity score for each horse. The therapeutic riding instructors did not often agree on the temperament of their center's horses. The personality trait ratings made by the therapeutic riding instructors at each center were on average significantly correlated (P<0.01, r>0.52) for only 37.8% of the horses for any two instructors and 7.8% for three instructors. No significant correlations were found between temperament, reactivity, and the hormone concentrations (r<0.19), but regression analysis indicated a possibility of predicting temperament from the reactivity score and hormone concentrations (P<0.08). There was also a tendency for relationships between extremes in temperament (desirable vs. undesirable) and the hormone concentrations (P<0.09), and between extremes in reactivity (low vs. high) and the hormone concentrations (P=0.08). The difference in ratings among riding instructors indicates a need for more collaboration between instructors when evaluating horse temperament. This study also indicates that it was very difficult to objectively determine the suitability of horses for therapeutic riding programs regarding their temperament and reactivity, probably because other traits (e.g., smoothness of gait) are also considered very important. |
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Equine Behaviour @ team @ |
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4812 |
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Visser, E.K.; van Reenen, C.G.; Hopster, H.; Schilder, M.B.H.; Knaap, J.H.; Barneveld, A.; Blokhuis, H.J. |
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Title |
Quantifying aspects of young horses' temperament: consistency of behavioural variables |
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Journal Article |
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2001 |
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Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
Abbreviated Journal |
Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. |
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74 |
Issue |
4 |
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241-258 |
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Horses; Temperament; Individual differences; Behavioural variables; Pca |
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Abstract |
Performance of horses, whether in sports or in leisure, depends on both physical abilities as well as temperament. The aim of the present work was to measure individual variation and consistency of behavioural variables, related to temperament, in young horses of the same breed and age, and reared under controlled housing conditions and management. A total of 41 Dutch Warmblood horses were tested at 9, 10, 21 and 22 months of age in two behavioural tests, i.e. the novel object test and the handling test. In the novel object test horses were confronted with an open umbrella that was lowered from the ceiling. In the handling test horses were led by a human to cross a bridge. Per test, behavioural variables in the following behavioural classes were observed: locomotor activity, latency times, postural expressions and vocalisations. Within years, all behavioural variables in the handling test, and all but two in the novel object test were positively correlated (0.36<Rs<0.81, P<0.05). For both tests, at 9, 10, 21 and 22 months of age, a principal component analysis (PCA) was carried out to examine whether there were indications for underlying components of these individual behavioural variables that could possibly serve as measures for temperamental traits. The first component in the novel object test could be regarded as `flightiness' and the second as `sensitiveness'. In the handling test, the first component was suggested to relate to `patience', the second component to `willingness to perform'. The temperamental trait `flightiness' (novel object test) as well as the temperamental trait `patience' (handling test) were positively correlated within both years (0.36<Rs<0.65, P<0.05). For the traits `sensitiveness' (novel object test) and `willingness to perform' (handling test) a positive correlation was only found within the first year (0.44<Rs<0.57, P<0.01). A few individual behavioural variables showed consistency over years. Additionally, just one out of four temperamental traits, namely `flightiness', proved to be consistent over years (Rs=0.49, P<0.01). The temperamental trait `patience' showed a trend between years (Rs=0.31, 0.05<P<0.1). It is concluded that the behavioural tests employed in the present study can be used to reliably identify individual behavioural variables and temperamental traits in young horses. Long-term consistency, i.e. between subsequent years, could not be demonstrated convincingly. Nevertheless, future work may indicate that employing the same approach and considering an even longer time period or different phases of the horse's life, long-term consistency does exist. |
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