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Author Brubaker, L.; Udell, M.A.R. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Cognition and learning in horses (Equus caballus): What we know and why we should ask more Type Journal Article
  Year 2016 Publication Behavioural Processes Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 126 Issue (down) Pages 121-131  
  Keywords Horse behaviour; Horse welfare; Learning; Social cognition  
  Abstract Abstract Horses (Equus caballus) have a rich history in their relationship with humans. Across different cultures and eras they have been utilized for work, show, cultural rituals, consumption, therapy, and companionship and continue to serve in many of these roles today. As one of the most commonly trained domestic animals, understanding how horses learn and how their relationship with humans and other horses impacts their ability to learn has implications for horse welfare, training, husbandry and management. Given that unlike dogs and cats, domesticated horses have evolved from prey animals, the horse-human relationship poses interesting and unique scientific questions of theoretical value. There is still much to be learned about the cognition and behaviour of horses from a scientific perspective. This review explores current research within three related areas of horse cognition: human-horse interactions, social learning and independent learning in horses. Research on these topics is summarized and suggestions for future research are provided.  
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  ISSN 0376-6357 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6021  
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Author Mejdell, C.M.; Buvik, T.; Jørgensen, G.H.M.; Bøe, K.E. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Horses can learn to use symbols to communicate their preferences Type Journal Article
  Year 2016 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 184 Issue (down) Pages 66-73  
  Keywords Operant conditioning; Blanket; Rug; Thermoregulation; Cognition; Clicker training  
  Abstract Abstract This paper describes a method in which horses learn to communicate by touching different neutral visual symbols, in order to tell the handler whether they want to have a blanket on or not. Horses were trained for 10–15 min per day, following a training program comprising ten steps in a strategic order. Reward based operant conditioning was used to teach horses to approach and touch a board, and to understand the meaning of three different symbols. Heat and cold challenges were performed to help learning and to check level of understanding. At certain stages, a learning criterion of correct responses for 8–14 successive trials had to be achieved before proceeding. After introducing the free choice situation, on average at training day 11, the horse could choose between a “no change” symbol and the symbol for either “blanket on” or “blanket off” depending on whether the horse already wore a blanket or not. A cut off point for performance or non-performance was set to day 14, and 23/23 horses successfully learned the task within this limit. Horses of warm-blood type needed fewer training days to reach criterion than cold-bloods (P < 0.05). Horses were then tested under differing weather conditions. Results show that choices made, i.e. the symbol touched, was not random but dependent on weather. Horses chose to stay without a blanket in nice weather, and they chose to have a blanket on when the weather was wet, windy and cold (χ2 = 36.67, P < 0.005). This indicates that horses both had an understanding of the consequence of their choice on own thermal comfort, and that they successfully had learned to communicate their preference by using the symbols. The method represents a novel tool for studying preferences in horses.  
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  ISSN 0168-1591 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6022  
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Author Rochais, C.; Henry, S.; Fureix, C.; Hausberger, M. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Investigating attentional processes in depressive-like domestic horses (Equus caballus) Type Journal Article
  Year 2016 Publication Behavioural Processes Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 124 Issue (down) Pages 93-96  
  Keywords Horses; Attention; Cognition; Welfare; Depression  
  Abstract Abstract Some captive/domestic animals respond to confinement by becoming inactive and unresponsive to external stimuli. Human inactivity is one of the behavioural markers of clinical depression, a mental disorder diagnosed by the co-occurrence of symptoms including deficit in selective attention. Some riding horses display ‘withdrawn’ states of inactivity and low responsiveness to stimuli that resemble the reduced engagement with their environment of some depressed patients. We hypothesized that ‘withdrawn’ horses experience a depressive-like state and evaluated their level of attention by confronting them with auditory stimuli. Five novel auditory stimuli were broadcasted to 27 horses, including 12 ‘withdrawn’ horses, for 5 days. The horses’ reactions and durations of attention were recorded. Non-withdrawn horses reacted more and their attention lasted longer than that of withdrawn horses on the first day, but their durations of attention decreased over days, but those of withdrawn horses remained stable. These results suggest that the withdrawn horses’ selective attention is altered, adding to already evidenced common features between this horses’ state and human depression.  
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  ISSN 0376-6357 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6023  
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Author Löckener, S.; Reese, S.; Erhard, M.; Wöhr, A.-C. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Pasturing in herds after housing in horseboxes induces a positive cognitive bias in horses Type Journal Article
  Year 2016 Publication Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 11 Issue (down) Pages 50-55  
  Keywords judgment bias; affect; environmental enrichment; well-being; discrimination task; horse  
  Abstract Abstract Horses are kept in various housing systems, for example, with conspecifics in horse pens or singly in horseboxes, with or without pasturing. To provide appropriate living conditions for horses, it is necessary to know in which conditions they feel well or unwell. Here, a cognitive bias assessment provides information about an individual's affective state and its well-being. When a positive affective state prevails, animals tend to judge optimistically in ambiguous situations. When a negative affective state prevails, animals judge pessimistically in unclear situations. In the present study, we trained horses on a spatial discrimination task and evaluated their judgment of ambiguous locations when they had access to pastures and contact to conspecifics versus when they were kept singly in horseboxes. Ten days of pasturing and contact with conspecifics after being kept singly in horseboxes for 6 months induced a positive cognitive bias in the horses. We suggest that horses need to act out certain behaviors like exploration, social interaction, play, or grooming to fulfill their needs. After a time in which they were individually in horseboxes without pasturing and access to the herd, they seem to have a positive cognitive bias once they have access to pastures and conspecifics. This positive cognitive bias effect seems to disappear over time, as horses appear to adapt to the circumstances.  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1558-7878 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6024  
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Author Taubert, J.; Weldon, K.B.; Parr, L.A. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Robust representations of individual faces in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) but not monkeys (Macaca mulatta) Type Journal Article
  Year 2016 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume Issue (down) Pages 1-9  
  Keywords  
  Abstract Being able to recognize the faces of our friends and family members no matter where we see them represents a substantial challenge for the visual system because the retinal image of a face can be degraded by both changes in the person (age, expression, pose, hairstyle, etc.) and changes in the viewing conditions (direction and degree of illumination). Yet most of us are able to recognize familiar people effortlessly. A popular theory for how face recognition is achieved has argued that the brain stabilizes facial appearance by building average representations that enhance diagnostic features that reliably vary between people while diluting features that vary between instances of the same person. This explains why people find it easier to recognize average images of people, created by averaging multiple images of the same person together, than single instances (i.e. photographs). Although this theory is gathering momentum in the psychological and computer sciences, there is no evidence of whether this mechanism represents a unique specialization for individual recognition in humans. Here we tested two species, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta), to determine whether average images of different familiar individuals were easier to discriminate than photographs of familiar individuals. Using a two-alternative forced-choice, match-to-sample procedure, we report a behaviour response profile that suggests chimpanzees encode the faces of conspecifics differently than rhesus monkeys and in a manner similar to humans.  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1435-9456 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Taubert2016 Serial 6030  
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Author Ringhofer, M.; Yamamoto, S. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Domestic horses send signals to humans when they face with an unsolvable task Type Journal Article
  Year 2016 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume Issue (down) Pages 1-9  
  Keywords  
  Abstract Some domestic animals are thought to be skilled at social communication with humans due to the process of domestication. Horses, being in close relationship with humans, similar to dogs, might be skilled at communication with humans. Previous studies have indicated that they are sensitive to bodily signals and the attentional state of humans; however, there are few studies that investigate communication with humans and responses to the knowledge state of humans. Our first question was whether and how horses send signals to their potentially helpful but ignorant caretakers in a problem-solving situation where a food item was hidden in a bucket that was accessible only to the caretakers. We then examined whether horses alter their behaviours on the basis of the caretakers’ knowledge of where the food was hidden. We found that horses communicated to their caretakers using visual and tactile signals. The signalling behaviour of the horses significantly increased in conditions where the caretakers had not seen the hiding of the food. These results suggest that horses alter their communicative behaviour towards humans in accordance with humans’ knowledge state.  
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  ISSN 1435-9456 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Ringhofer2016 Serial 6037  
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Author Ward, A; Webster, M. openurl 
  Title Sociality: The Behaviour of Group-Living Animals Type Book Whole
  Year 2016 Publication Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume Issue (down) Pages  
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  Abstract Covers the aspects of social behaviour of animals in comprehensive form Provides a clear overview to up-to-date empirical and theoretical research on social animal behaviour

Discusses collective animal behaviour, social networks and animal personality in detail

The last decade has seen a surge of interest among biologists in a range of social animal phenomena, including collective behaviour and social networks. In ‘Animal Social Behaviour’, authors Ashley Ward and Michael Webster integrate the most up-to-date empirical and theoretical research to provide a new synthesis of the field, which is aimed at fellow researchers and postgraduate students on the topic. &#8203;
 
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6156  
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Author Koistinen, T.; Korhonen, H.T.; Hämäläinen, E.; Mononen, J. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Blue foxes' (Vulpes lagopus) motivation to gain access and interact with various resources Type Journal Article
  Year 2016 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 176 Issue (down) Pages 105-111  
  Keywords Cage; Enrichment; Fur farming; Latency  
  Abstract We analysed the willingness of blue foxes (Vulpes lagopus) to work for and utilise five resources: a platform, wooden block, sand floor, nest box and empty space. Ten juvenile blue fox males were housed singly in apparatus consisting of three cages connected with one-way doors through the walls in between the cages and subjected to work for each of the five resources, one at a time. The resource was placed in one of the outermost cages of the apparatus. Force needed to open the door leading to the resource cage was increased daily by 0.25 or 0.5kg. The number of daily entries, visit durations and interaction with the resource were recorded on workloads of 0, 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 5, 6.5, and 8kg of extra weight. The latency to start interacting with the resource after entering the resource cage was measured on a workload of 3.5kg. The mean number of daily entries in the resource and the other outermost, i.e. control cage varied from 7 to 28 and from 17 to 44, respectively. The increasing workload decreased the number of entries in the resource cage, increased those in the control cage (Linear Mixed Model: F1,638=79.5, P<0.001) and lengthened the visit durations in both cages (F1,642=7.2, P<0.01). The foxes made most (F4,643=9.0, P<0.001) and shortest (F4,641=2.8, P<0.05) visits to the outermost cages when the available resource was either a platform or empty space. The visit durations were longest when the available resource was a nest box. The foxes interacted regularly with the wooden block, but five foxes were not observed interacting with the platform. The nest box was utilised approximately 50% of the time spent in the resource cage, while the platform was utilised only 1-6% and wooden block 2-17% of the time. The mean latency to start interacting with the resource after entering the resource cage was shortest for the sand floor (8s) and longest for the platform (113s, F3,335=26.3, P<0.001). The results show that the foxes re-scheduled their activities on increasing workloads in the apparatus. Based on the number of entries and visit durations, blue foxes valued the wooden block, nest box and sand floor more than the platform or an empty cage. After entering the resource cage, the foxes started interacting fastest with the sand floor, showing high motivation to interact. After entering the resource cage, the foxes make use of the roof of the nest box more urgently than the interior of the nest box. Long bouts in the cage with nest box indicate resting behaviour.  
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0168-1591 ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6166  
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Author A. Lanata; A. Guidi; G. Valenza; P. Baragli; E. P. Scilingo doi  openurl
  Title Quantitative heartbeat coupling measures in human-horse interaction Type Conference Article
  Year 2016 Publication 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) Abbreviated Journal 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (E  
  Volume Issue (down) Pages 2696-2699  
  Keywords electrocardiography; medical signal processing; signal classification; time series; Dtw; Hrv; Mpc; Msc; complex biological systems; dynamic time warping; grooming; heart rate variability time series; heartbeat dynamics; human-horse dynamic interaction; magnitude squared coherence; magnitude-phase coupling; mean phase coherence; nearest mean classifier; quantitative heartbeat coupling; real human-animal interaction; time duration; visual-olfactory interaction; Coherence; Couplings; Electrocardiography; Heart rate variability; Horses; Protocols; Time series analysis  
  Abstract Abstract— We present a study focused on a quantitative estimation of a human-horse dynamic interaction. A set of measures based on magnitude and phase coupling between heartbeat dynamics of both humans and horses in three different conditions is reported: no interaction, visual/olfactory interaction and grooming. Specifically, Magnitude Squared Coherence (MSC), Mean Phase Coherence (MPC) and Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) have been used as estimators of the amount of coupling between human and horse through the analysis of their heart rate variability (HRV) time series in a group of eleven human subjects, and one horse. The rationale behind this study is that the interaction of two complex biological systems go towards a coupling process whose dynamical evolution is modulated by the kind and time duration of the interaction itself. We achieved a congruent and consistent

statistical significant difference for all of the three indices. Moreover, a Nearest Mean Classifier was able to recognize the three classes of interaction with an accuracy greater than 70%. Although preliminary, these encouraging results allow a discrimination of three distinct phases in a real human-animal interaction opening to the characterization of the empirically proven relationship between human and horse.
 
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  Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (E  
  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1557-170x ISBN Medium  
  Area Expedition Conference  
  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6175  
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Author Suter, S.M.; Giordano, M.; Nietlispach, S.; Apollonio, M.; Passilongo, D. openurl 
  Title Non-invasive acoustic detection of wolves Type Journal Article
  Year 2016 Publication Bioacoustics Abbreviated Journal Bioacoustics  
  Volume Issue (down) Pages  
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  Abstract Monitoring wolves (Canis lupus) is a difficult and often expensive task due to high mobility,pack dynamic, shyness and nocturnal activity of this species. Wolves communicate acoustically trough howling, within pack and with packs of the neighbourhood. A wolf howl is a low frequency vocalization that can be transmitted over long distances and thus be used

for monitoring tasks. Animated howling survey is a current method to monitor wolves indifferent areas all over the world. Animated howling, however, may be invasive to residential wolf packs and could create possible negative reactions from local human population. Here we show that it is possible to detect wolves by recording spontaneous howling events. We measured the sound pressure level of wolf howls on captive individuals and we further found that simulated howling may be recorded and clearly identified up to a distance of 3 km. We finally conducted non-invasive acoustic detection of wolves in a free ranging population. The use of passive sound recorders may provide a powerful non-invasive tool for future wolf monitoring and thus help to established sustainable management plans for this species.
 
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6500  
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