Abstract: Knowledge of animal behavior is an important asset for the veterinarian; therefore a course in veterinary animal behavior is offered at the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine as an elective. The course emphasizes the behavior of those species of most interest to the practicing veterinarian: cats, dogs, horses, cows, pigs and sheep. Dominance heirarchies, animal communication, aggressive behavior, sexual behavior and maternal behavior are discussed. Play, learning, diurnal cycles of activity and sleep, and controls of ingestive behavior are also considered. Exotic and zoo animal behaviors are also presented by experts in these fields. The critical periods of canine development are related to the optimum management of puppies. The behavior of feral dogs and horses is described. The role of the veterinarian in preventing cruelty to animals and recognition of pain in animals is emphasized. Whenever possible behavior is observed in the laboratory or on film.

Abstract: The dominance hierarchy of a herd of 10 Thoroughbred mares was determined twice, at an interval of 18 months, using paired feeding tests. Each mare's rank was correlated significantly between the 2 tests. This indicated that the hierarchy within the herd was stable. The offspring of dominant and subordinate mares were also tested for dominance in their own age groups. The offspring of dominant mares tended to be near the top of the hierarchy while those of middle and low ranking mares were not consistently found in the middle or bottom of their own hierarchies. Paired feeding tests were carried out on 8 ponies. During tests the time that each pony spent eating and the ponies' aggressive interactions were recorded. Two situations were used. Each pony-pair was tested when both ponies were in the same paddock and also when they were separated by a rail fence. The subordinate ponies spent significantly more time eating and the domonant pony was significantly less aggressive, when the pony-pair was separated by a fence than when they were in one paddock. It was concluded that the dominance hierarchies of adult horse groups changed very little over time and that the foals of dominant mares will tend to be dominant in their own age groups. Management practices can be used to reduce aggression and consequent injury that may arise in group feeding situations.

Abstract: The ability to act on information flexibly is one of the cornerstones of intelligent behavior. As particularly informative example, tool-oriented behavior has been investigated to determine to which extent nonhuman animals understand means-end relations, object affordances, and have specific motor skills. Even planning with foresight, goal-directed problem solving and immediate causal inference have been a focus of research. However, these cognitive abilities may not be restricted to tool-using animals but may be found also in animals that show high levels of curiosity, object exploration and manipulation, and extractive foraging behavior. The kea, a New Zealand parrot, is a particularly good example. We here review findings from laboratory experiments and field observations of keas revealing surprising cognitive capacities in the physical domain. In an experiment with captive keas, the success rate of individuals that were allowed to observe a trained conspecific was significantly higher than that of naive control subjects due to their acquisition of some functional understanding of the task through observation. In a further experiment using the string-pulling task, a well-probed test for means-end comprehension, we found the keas finding an immediate solution that could not be improved upon in nine further trials. We interpreted their performance as insightful in the sense of being sensitive of the relevant functional properties of the task and thereby producing a new adaptive response without trial-and-error learning. Together, these findings contribute to the ongoing debate on the distribution of higher cognitive skills in the animal kingdom by showing high levels of sensorimotor intelligence in animals that do not use tools. In conclusion, we suggest that the 'Technical intelligence hypothesis' (Byrne, Machiavellian intelligence II: extensions and evaluations, pp 289-211, 1997), which has been proposed to explain the origin of the ape/monkey grade-shift in intelligence by a selection pressure upon an increased efficiency in foraging behavior, should be extended, that is, applied to some birds as well.

Abstract: Methods to describe dominance hierarchies are a key tool in primatology studies. Most current methods are appropriate for analyzing linear and near-linear hierarchies; however, more complex structures are common in primate groups. We propose a method termed “dominance-directed tree.” This method is based on graph theory and set theory to analyze dominance relationships in social groups. The method constructs a transitive matrix by imposing transitivity to the dominance matrix and produces a graphical representation of the dominance relationships, which allows an easy visualization of the hierarchical position of the individuals, or subsets of individuals. The method is also able to detect partial and complete hierarchies, and to describe situations in which hierarchical and nonhierarchical principles operate. To illustrate the method, we apply a dominance tree analysis to artificial data and empirical data from a group of Cebus apella.

Abstract: We tested the hypothesis that social defensive responses to the vocalisation of a predator still exist in horses. The recordings of a grey wolf, an Arabian leopard and a golden jackal were played to 20 Konik polski and Arabian mares. Durations of grazing, standing still, standing alert and the number of steps in walk and trot/canter were measured. In one-minute scans, the distances of the focal horse from the reference horse (DIST-RH) and from the nearest loudspeaker (DIST-LS) were approximated. The vocalisation of a leopard aroused the Arabians more than the Koniks (less grazing, stand-still and walk, more stand-alert and trotting/cantering). Koniks showed more relaxed behaviours to the leopard vocalisation (more grazing, stand-still and walk), but high alertness to the wolf playback (stand-alert, trotting/cantering). Spatial formation of the herd of Koniks showed tight grouping (lower DIST-RH) and maintaining distance from the potential threat (DIST-LS) in response to the wolf howling, while the Arabians approached the loudspeakers in linear herd formation when the leopard growls were played. Adult horses responded to potential predation by changing spatial group formations. This ability to apply a social strategy may be one of the explanations for the least number of horses among all hunted farm animal species.