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Krueger, K. (2017). Perissodactyla Cognition. In J. Vonk, & T. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior (pp. 1–10). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
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Krueger, K., Marr, I., & Farmer, K. (2017). Equine Cognition. In J. Vonk, & T. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior (pp. 1–11). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
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Krueger, K. (2010). Das Pferd im Blickpunkt der Wissenschaft. Wald: Xenophon Verlag.
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Krueger, K., & Krueger, K. (2010). Trainingslehre für Dressurpferde [Training the Dressage Horse]. Wald: Xenophon Verlag.
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Krueger, K. (Ed.). (2012). Proceedings of the 2. International Equine Science Meeting. Wald: Xenophon Publishing.
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Krueger, K. (2015). Social learning and innovative behaviour in horses. In Proceedings of the 3. International Equine Science Meeting. Wald: Xenophon Publishing.
Abstract: The evaluation of important parameters for measuring the horses’ cognitive capacities is one of the central topics of the equine behaviour team at Nürtingen-Geislingen University. Social complexity has been said to be one of the settings in which needs for cognitive capacities arise in animals. A variety of studies throughout the last two decades proved the horses’ social complexity to be far more elaborate than previously assumed. Horses form social bonds for the protection of offspring, intervene in encounters of others, identify group mates individually and easily orientate in a fission fusion society.
In such socially complex societies, animals will benefit from learning socially. In many bird and primate species the degree of social complexity correlates nicely with the species abilities for social learning. Social learning was, therefore, argued to be an indicator for elaborate mental capacities in animals. We were delighted to prove that horses actually copy social behaviour and techniques for operating a feeding apparatus from older and higher ranking group members. In a recent study we found young horses, at the age of 3 to 12, to copy the operation of a feeding apparatus from a human demonstrator. Social learning seems to work nicely in horses when the social background of the animals is considered.
The degree to which individual animals adapt to changes in their social or physical environment by finding innovative solution appears to be the other side of the coin, of whether animals adjust to challenges by social learning. It is not very astonishing, that along with the animals’ social complexity and their ability to learn socially also the degree to which they show innovative behaviour was claimed to be one of the most important demonstrations of advanced cognitive capacities. In a recent approach, we started to ask horse owners and horse keepers in many countries to tell us about unusual behaviour of their horses via a web site (http://innovative-behaviour.org). To date, we received 204 cases of innovative behaviour descriptions from which six cases were clear examples of tool use or borderline tool use. We categorized the innovative behaviours into the classes, a) innovations to gain food, b) innovations to gain freedom, c) social innovations, d) innovations to increase maintenance, and e) innovations that could not be clearly assigned to a category. About 20% of the innovative horses showed more than one innovation. These animals could be termed “true innovators”. Again, young horses were more innovative than older ones with the age group 5 – 9 showing the highest number of innovative behaviour descriptions.
In a nutshell, the horses’ cognitive capacities appear to be underestimated throughout the last decades. The horses’ social complexity is far more elaborate than previously assumed, horses learn socially from conspecific and humans, some of them demonstrate innovative behaviour adaptations to their environment and even simple forms of tool use.
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Krueger, K. (2008). Social cognition and social learning in horses. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: In comparison to other social animals it appears to be far more difficult to show social learning in horses, although the social background of the animals prompts the prediction that social learning should be verifiable. This demands for a thorough analysis of conditions, context and effects of social learning which might not be as obvious in horses than in other social animals. Moreover, the horse“s social cognition in general, i.e. the processing, encoding, storage, retrieval, and application of social information, needs to be examined. In previous studies we addressed the horse”s perception of it“s social environment. Our results indicate that domestic horses are not only capable of distinguishing between familiar and unfamiliar horses but also of recognizing the social status of familiar horses relative to their own. Furthermore, they extract information from observing interactions between a familiar horse and a human experimenter, and adjust their behaviour according to the observed horse”s reaction and relative dominance status when they are themselves later confronted with the experimenter in a similar situation. Additionally, we showed in pilot experiments that horses paid more attention to the gaze of dominant horses from their own social group than to that of unknown or subordinate horses. In another study we suggested that horses of both sexes are capable of determining the social affiliation, the sex and, for their own group members, the identity of individuals, by sniffing their faeces. Hence, social affiliation and dominance relationships seemed to have a major influence on the horses` motivation to pay attention to their conspecifics. In the future we will take another step towards linking the horse“s social cognitive capacities with its social ecology, social structure, and individuality. In the context of comparative cognition research on the socially complex primates, or on a range of carnivores such as corvids, canids or dolphins, horses are particularly interesting, because they are highly social, but do not rely on social hunting or cooperative raising of offspring. Also foraging is simple for horses, predator avoidance is demanding and this may be the main reason for the horse”s complex social lives and their choice of learning tactics. Hence, we will investigate the horse"s investigative behaviour towards neutral, fear-eliciting and food related novel objects. We propose that, as in other species, sociality and distinct personalities are key features for the understanding of cognitive capacities and the choice of learning strategies.
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Flauger, B., & Krueger, K. (2008). Ecology and evolution of equine cognitive abilities. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: The cognitive abilities of social ungulates, in particular horses, have widely been neglected. Preliminary results suggest that horses are capable of social cognition which they acquire through social learning. They gain information from the observation of the interaction of a conspecific and a human experimenter, and adjust their own behaviour towards the experimenter with respect to the observed horse"s reaction and relative dominance status (Krueger and Heinze, 2007). Horses are a highly social species that still exists in different evolutionary stages: domestic horses, feral horses and wild horses (Przewalski horses). Additionally, domestic and wild horses differ in their individual social behaviour. For example, in social interactions Przewalski horses appear to act significantly more aggressively than domestic horses. Therefore studies on horses are particularly suitable to investigate whether convergent social evolution favours convergent cognitive evolution. By a comparative study concerning their reasoning abilities in a specific situation, we will attempt to determine the influence of domestication and feralisation on the evolution of social cognition and to investigate possible differences in their abilities to cope with stressful situations. We started to observe the behaviour of domestic and wild horses, in particular during the integration into new social groups, especially in relation with their knowledge of the social structure of new groups and their own relative social status. Selected agonistic interactions will be measured and statistically evaluated. Additionally, the stress level of the horses will be determined by an analysis of stress hormone levels, particularly cortisol metabolites, in plasma, saliva and faeces.
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Wolter, R., Pantel, N., Möstl, E., & Krueger, K. (2013). Die Rolle des Alpha-Hengstes in einer Przewalski Bachelor-Gruppe beim Erkunden einer neuen Fläche in einem Semi-Reservat. (Vol. Göttinger Pferdetage'13, 66).
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Fuchs, K., Götz, K., Manschel, K., Pohl, L., Preisendanz, L., Weil, S., et al. (2013). Vergleich der Interaktionen von Pferden in Boxenhaltung mit Weidegang und Pferden in Offenstallhaltung. In Göttinger Pferdetage’13 (65).
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