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Author Leadbeater, E.; Dawson, E.H. url  openurl
  Title A social insect perspective on the evolution of social learning mechanisms Type Journal Article
  Year 2017 Publication Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Abbreviated Journal Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.  
  Volume 114 Issue 30 Pages 7838-7845  
  Keywords  
  Abstract The social world offers a wealth of opportunities to learn from others, and across the animal kingdom individuals capitalize on those opportunities. Here, we explore the role of natural selection in shaping the processes that underlie social information use, using a suite of experiments on social insects as case studies. We illustrate how an associative framework can encompass complex, context-specific social learning in the insect world and beyond, and based on the hypothesis that evolution acts to modify the associative process, suggest potential pathways by which social information use could evolve to become more efficient and effective. Social insects are distant relatives of vertebrate social learners, but the research we describe highlights routes by which natural selection could coopt similar cognitive raw material across the animal kingdom.  
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  Notes 10.1073/pnas.1620744114 Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6189  
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Author Riley, J.L.; Noble, D.W.A.; Byrne, R.W.; Whiting, M.J. url  doi
openurl 
  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.  
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  ISSN 1435-9456 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Riley2017 Serial 6190  
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Author Liedtke, J.; Schneider, J.M. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Social makes smart: rearing conditions affect learning and social behaviour in jumping spiders Type Journal Article
  Year 2017 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 20 Issue 6 Pages 1093-1106  
  Keywords  
  Abstract There is a long-standing debate as to whether social or physical environmental aspects drive the evolution and development of cognitive abilities. Surprisingly few studies make use of developmental plasticity to compare the effects of these two domains during development on behaviour later in life. Here, we present rearing effects on the development of learning abilities and social behaviour in the jumping spider Marpissa muscosa. These spiders are ideally suited for this purpose because they possess the ability to learn and can be reared in groups but also in isolation without added stress. This is a critical but rarely met requirement for experimentally varying the social environment to test its impact on cognition. We split broods of spiders and reared them either in a physically or in a socially enriched environment. A third group kept under completely deprived conditions served as a 'no-enrichment' control. We tested the spiders' learning abilities by using a modified T-maze. Social behaviour was investigated by confronting spiders with their own mirror image. Results show that spiders reared in groups outperform their conspecifics from the control, i.e. 'no-enrichment', group in both tasks. Physical enrichment did not lead to such an increased performance. We therefore tentatively suggest that growing up in contact with conspecifics induces the development of cognitive abilities in this species.  
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  ISSN 1435-9456 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Liedtke2017 Serial 6191  
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Author Knolle, F.; Goncalves, R.P.; Morton, A.J. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Sheep recognize familiar and unfamiliar human faces from two-dimensional images Type Journal Article
  Year 2017 Publication Royal Society Open Science Abbreviated Journal  
  Volume 4 Issue 11 Pages  
  Keywords  
  Abstract One of the most important human social skills is the ability to recognize faces. Humans recognize familiar faces easily, and can learn to identify unfamiliar faces from repeatedly presented images. Sheep are social animals that can recognize other sheep as well as familiar humans. Little is known, however, about their holistic face-processing abilities. In this study, we trained eight sheep (Ovis aries) to recognize the faces of four celebrities from photographic portraits displayed on computer screens. After training, the sheep chose the 'learned-familiar' faces rather than the unfamiliar faces significantly above chance. We then tested whether the sheep could recognize the four celebrity faces if they were presented in different perspectives. This ability has previously been shown only in humans. Sheep successfully recognized the four celebrity faces from tilted images. Interestingly, there was a drop in performance with the tilted images (from 79.22 ± 7.5% to 66.5 ± 4.1%) of a magnitude similar to that seen when humans perform this task. Finally, we asked whether sheep could recognize a very familiar handler from photographs. Sheep identified the handler in 71.8 ± 2.3% of the trials without pretraining. Together these data show that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, comparable with those of humans and non-human primates.  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6197  
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Author Kiliç, S.; Cantürk, G. doi  openurl
  Title Car Accident Due to Horse Crossing the Motorway: Two Case Reports Type Journal Article
  Year 2017 Publication The Bulletin of Legal Medicine Abbreviated Journal Bull. Leg. Med.  
  Volume 22 Issue Pages  
  Keywords animal vehicle collision, death, disability, horse, injury, motorway  
  Abstract Basic Commercial Court in Ankara wanted a report from our department of forensic medicine about two injury cases due to animal vehicle collision. The reports should include the disability rate and the duration of unfunctionality. After the examination we prepared the reports. Both vehicle collisions happened due to free ranging horse crossing the motorway. Both cases had different types of injury due to trauma. Vehicle collision due to horse crossing the motorway is rarely met in Turkey.

Our first case is a man that had upper extremity and facial injury. He uses prothesis due to ear amputation. He has a scar tissue on the right side of his face and left forearm. The other case is three-years-old boy that had cranial bone fracture and cranial hematoma. He has also hemiparesis of the right side of body. Both cases have neurologic sequels but they have no psychiatric sequels.

In literature, animal vehicle collisions involve lots of animal species such as kangaroo, deer, camel and moose. Animal vehicle collision involving the horses is rarely met. Forensic medicine specialists should state the causal link between traumatic events and disabilities in order to help justice. Our aim to present the current two cases is investigation of injuries of animal related collision and makes forensic medicine specialists pay attention to the subject of preparing reports about such cases.
 
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6206  
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Author Ronnenberg, K.; Habbe, B.; Gräber, R.; Strauß, E.; Siebert, U. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Coexistence of wolves and humans in a densely populated region (Lower Saxony, Germany) Type Journal Article
  Year 2017 Publication Basic and Applied Ecology Abbreviated Journal Basic. Appl. Ecol.  
  Volume 25 Issue Pages 1-14  
  Keywords Grey wolf; ; Habitat use; Species distribution models; Predator-prey interactions  
  Abstract Since the first sporadic occurrences of grey wolves (Canis lupus) west of the Polish border in 1996, wolves have shown a rapid population recovery in Germany. Wolves are known to avoid people and wolf attacks on humans are very rare worldwide. However, the subjectively perceived threat is considerable, especially as food-conditioned habituation to humans occurs sporadically. Lower Saxony (Germany) has an exceedingly higher human population density than most other regions with territorial wolves; thus, the potential for human-wolf conflicts is higher. Using hunters' wildlife survey data from 455 municipalities and two years (2014-2015) and data from the official wolf monitoring (557 confirmed wolf presences and 500 background points) collected between 2012-2015, grey wolf habitat selection was modelled using generalized additive models with respect to human population density, road density, forest cover and roe deer density. Moreover, we tested whether habitat use changed in response to human population and road density between 2012/2013 and 2014/2015. Wolves showed a preference for areas of low road density. Human population density was less important as a covariate in the model of the survey data. Areas with higher prey abundance (5-10 roe deer/km2) and areas with >20% forest cover were preferred wolf habitats. Wolves were mostly restricted to areas with the lowest road and human population densities. However, between the two time periods, avoidance of human density decreased significantly. Recolonization of Germany is still in its early stages and it is unclear where this process will halt. To-date authorities mainly concentrate on monitoring measures. However, to avoid conflict, recolonization will require more stringent management of wolf populations and an improved information strategy for rural populations.  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 1439-1791 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6397  
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Author Passilongo, D.; Marchetto, M.; Apollonio, M. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Singing in a wolf chorus: structure and complexity of a multicomponent acoustic behaviour Type Journal Article
  Year 2017 Publication Hystrix, the Italian Journal of Mammalogy Abbreviated Journal Hysterix  
  Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 180-185  
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  Abstract Wolf choruses ( Canis lupus ) are complex, multicomponent signals, composed by a series of different vocalizations emitted by a pack. Although howls, the main component, have been highly studied, poor attention has been drawn upon the other vocalizations of the chorus. In this study, we investigate the structure of the chorus by means of the analysis and the quantification of the different components, taking advantage both of the digital sound recording and analysis, and of the modern statistical methodologies. We provide for the first time a detailed, objective description of the types of call emitted during the wolf howlings, combining spectrographic examinations, spectral analyses and automated classifications, with the aim to identify different types of call. Our results show that wolf choruses have a rich, complex structure, that reveals six other types of call, to be added to those howls already described in literature. Wolf choruses are typically composed by other three different types of calls: the bark, i.e. relatively long calls characterized by low frequencies and the presence of harsh components (deterministic chaos); the whimper, characterized by a harmonic structure and a very short duration; and the growl, a call with a noisy structure, low frequencies but relative long duration. Although further investigations are necessary to understand the meaning of the different calls, this research provides a basis for those studies that aim to compare wolves and other canids vocal behaviour.  
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  ISSN 0394-1914 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Passilongo2017 Serial 6441  
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Author Schwartz, L.P.; Silberberg, A.; Casey, A.H.; Kearns, D.N.; Slotnick, B. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Does a rat release a soaked conspecific due to empathy? Type Journal Article
  Year 2017 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.  
  Volume 20 Issue 2 Pages 299-308  
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  Abstract In Experiment 1, rats choosing in an E maze preferred to release a rat standing in a pool of water to dry ground over a rat already standing on dry ground. Five additional experiments showed that the choosing rat's preference for releasing the wet rat was maintained by two separable outcomes: (1) the social contact offered by the released rat and (2) the reinforcing value of proximity to a pool of water. These results call into question Sato et al.'s (Anim Cogn 18:1039-1047, 2015) claim to have demonstrated that a rat's releasing of a wet rat to dry ground is empathically motivated.  
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  ISSN 1435-9456 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Schwartz2017 Serial 6559  
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Author McLean, A.N.; Christensen, J.W. url  doi
openurl 
  Title The application of learning theory in horse training Type Journal Article
  Year 2017 Publication Applied Animal Behaviour Science Abbreviated Journal Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.  
  Volume 190 Issue Pages 18-27  
  Keywords Behaviour; Conflict theory; Desensitisation; Habituation; Reinforcement; Stress  
  Abstract The millennia-old practices of horse training markedly predate and thus were isolated from the mid-twentieth century revelation of animal learning processes. From this standpoint, the progress made in the application and understanding of learning theory in horse training is reviewed including a discussion of how learning processes are employed or otherwise under-utilised in training. This review describes the process of habituation and the most commonly applied desensitisation techniques (systematic desensitisation, counter-conditioning, overshadowing, response prevention) and propose two additional techniques (approach conditioning and stimulus blending). The salience of different types of cues, the interaction of operant and classical conditioning and the impact of stress are also discussed. This paper also exposes the inflexibility and occasional inadequacy of the terminology of learning theory when translated from the research laboratory situation to the practical setting in horse training. While learning theory provides a rich toolbox for riders and trainers, the training process is subject to the simultaneous use of multiple learning processes. In addition, learning/behavioural outcomes and trained responses are not just the result of simple stimulus-response based interactions but are further shaped by arousal, affective and attachment states. More research is needed in these areas. For the field of equitation science to progress and to improve clarity and use of learning processes, changes in nomenclature are required. In particular, the use of the terms 'positive' and 'negative' as descriptive labels in both reinforcement and punishment modalities are unacceptably misleading for everyday use. These labels inhibit the understanding and recognition of the learning processes that these terms supposedly represent, yet the learning processes they describe are vital for horse riders, handlers and trainers to understand. We therefore propose that these labels should be re-labelled more appropriately as 'addition' or 'subtraction' reinforcement/punishment. This would enlighten trainers on the correct application of learning theory, and safety and welfare benefits for people and horses would follow. Finally it is also proposed that the term 'conflict theory' be taken up in equitation science to facilitate diagnosis of training-related behaviour disorders and thus enable the emergence of improved training practices. The optimal use of learning theory should be established as a fundamental principle in equestrian education.  
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  ISSN 0168-1591 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6597  
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Author Hartmann, E.; Bøe, K.E.; Jørgensen, G.H.M.; Mejdell, C.M.; Dahlborn, K. url  doi
openurl 
  Title Management of horses with focus on blanketing and clipping practices reported by members of the Swedish and Norwegian equestrian community1 Type Journal Article
  Year 2017 Publication Journal of Animal Science Abbreviated Journal J Anim Sci  
  Volume 95 Issue 3 Pages 1104-1117  
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  Abstract Limited information is available on the extent to which blankets are used on horses and the owners' reasoning behind clipping the horse's coat. Research on the effects of those practices on horse welfare is scarce but results indicate that blanketing and clipping may not be necessary from the horse's perspective and can interfere with the horse's thermoregulatory capacities. Therefore, this survey collected robust, quantitative data on the housing routines and management of horses with focus on blanketing and clipping practices as reported by members of the Swedish and Norwegian equestrian community. Horse owners were approached via an online survey, which was distributed to equestrian organizations and social media. Data from 4,122 Swedish and 2,075 Norwegian respondents were collected, of which 91 and 84% of respondents, respectively, reported using blankets on horses during turnout. Almost all respondents owning warmblood riding horses used blankets outdoors (97% in Sweden and 96% in Norway) whereas owners with Icelandic horses and coldblood riding horses used blankets significantly less (P < 0.05). Blankets were mainly used during rainy, cold, or windy weather conditions and in ambient temperatures of 10°C and below. The horse's coat was clipped by 67% of respondents in Sweden and 35% of Norwegian respondents whereby owners with warmblood horses and horses primarily used for dressage and competition reported clipping the coat most frequently. In contrast to scientific results indicating that recovery time after exercise increases with blankets and that clipped horses have a greater heat loss capacity, only around 50% of respondents agreed to these statements. This indicates that evidence-based information on all aspects of blanketing and clipping has not yet been widely distributed in practice. More research is encouraged, specifically looking at the effect of blankets on sweaty horses being turned out after intense physical exercise and the effect of blankets on social interactions such as mutual grooming. Future efforts should be tailored to disseminate knowledge more efficiently, which can ultimately stimulate thoughtful decision-making by horse owners concerning the use of blankets and clipping the horse's coat.  
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  Series Volume Series Issue Edition  
  ISSN 0021-8812 ISBN Medium  
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  Notes Approved no  
  Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 6615  
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