Griffin, A. S., Tebbich, S., & Bugnyar, T. (2017). Animal cognition in a human-dominated world. Anim. Cogn., 20(1), 1–6.
Abstract: In the USA, each year, up to one billion birds are estimated to die from colliding with windowpanes (Sabo et al. 2016). A further 573,000 are struck down by wind turbines, along with 888,000 bats (Smallwood 2013). Worldwide, unintended capture in fishing devices is recognized as the single most serious global threat to migratory, long-lived marine taxa including turtles, birds, mammals and sharks (Wallace et al. 2013). Estimates put the number of amphibians killed per year on Australian roads at 5 million (Seiler 2003). The likelihood of a green turtle erroneously ingesting plastic debris, often by mistaking them for food, rose from 30% in 1985 to almost 50% in 2012 (Schuyler et al. 2013). Human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC, sensu Sih et al. 2011) is filling animals’ environments with new threats which bear little or excessive similarity to those they have encountered in their evolutionary history (Dwernychuk and Boag 1972; Patten and Kelley 2010; Witherington 1997). As a consequence, many of the stimuli involved fall outside the adaptive processing space of animals’ evolutionary perceptual, learning, memory and decision-making systems, making individuals particularly vulnerable to their impact.
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Grönemann, C. (2015). Konfliktfeld Pferd und Wolf – Eine Untersuchung zu Einstellungen, Erwartungen und Befürchtungen von Pferdehaltern und Reitsportlern in Niedersachsen. Master's thesis, Universität Hildesheim, Hildesheim.
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Grönemann, K. (2015). Konfliktfeld Pferd und Wolf – Eine Untersuchung zu Einstellungen, Erwartungen und Befürchtungen von Pferdehaltern und Reitsportlern in Niedersachsen. Master's thesis, University Hildesheim, Hildesheim.
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Guidi, A., Lanata, A., Valenza, G., Scilingo, E. P., & Baragli, P. (2017). Validation of smart textile electrodes for electrocardiogram monitoring in free-moving horses. J. Vet. Behav., 17, 19–23.
Abstract: This article focuses on the validation of smart textile electrodes used to acquire electrocardiogram (ECG) signals in horses in a comfortable and robust manner. The performance of smart textile electrodes is compared with standard Ag/AgCl electrodes in terms of the percentage of motion artifacts (MAs, the noise that results from the movement of electrodes against the skin) and signal quality. Seven healthy Standardbred mares were equipped with 2 identical electronic systems for the simultaneous collection of ECGs. One system was equipped with smart textile electrodes, whereas the second was equipped with standard Ag/AgCl electrodes. Each horse was then monitored individually in a stall for 1 hour, without any movement constraints. The ECGs were visually examined by an expert who blindly labeled the ECG segments that had been corrupted by MAs. Finally, the percentage of MAs (MA%) was computed as the number of samples of the corrupted segments over the whole length of the signal. The total MA% was found to be lower for the smart textiles than for the Ag/AgCl electrodes. Consistent results were also obtained by investigating MAs over time. These results suggest that smart textile electrodes are more reliable when recording artifact-free ECGs in horses at rest. Thus, improving the acquisition of important physiological information related to the activity of the autonomic nervous system, such as heart rate variability, could help to provide reliable information on the mood and state of arousal of horses.
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Hagen, K., & Broom, D. M. (2004). Emotional reactions to learning in cattle. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 85(3), 203–213.
Abstract: It has been suggested that during instrumental learning, animals are likely to react emotionally to the reinforcer. They may in addition react emotionally to their own achievements. These reactions are of interest with regard to the animals' capacity for self-awareness. Therefore, we devised a yoked control experiment involving the acquisition of an operant task. We aimed to identify the emotional reactions of young cattle to their own learning and to separate these from reactions to a food reward. Twelve Holstein-Friesian heifers aged 7-12 months were divided into two groups. Heifers in the experimental group were conditioned over a 14-day period to press a panel in order to open a gate for access to a food reward. For heifers in the control group, the gate opened after a delay equal to their matched partner's latency to open it. To allow for observation of the heifers' movements during locomotion after the gate had opened, there was a 15m distance in the form of a race from the gate to the food trough. The heart rate of the heifers, and their behaviour when moving along the race towards the food reward were measured. When experimental heifers made clear improvements in learning, they were more likely than on other occasions to have higher heart rates and tended to move more vigorously along the race in comparison with their controls. This experiment found some, albeit inconclusive, indication that cattle may react emotionally to their own learning improvement.
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Hagen, S. J., & Eaton, W. A. (2000). Two-state expansion and collapse of a polypeptide. J Mol Biol, 301(4), 1019–1027.
Abstract: The initial phase of folding for many proteins is presumed to be the collapse of the polypeptide chain from expanded to compact, but still denatured, conformations. Theory and simulations suggest that this collapse may be a two-state transition, characterized by barrier-crossing kinetics, while the collapse of homopolymers is continuous and multi-phasic. We have used a laser temperature-jump with fluorescence spectroscopy to measure the complete time-course of the collapse of denatured cytochrome c with nanosecond time resolution. We find the process to be exponential in time and thermally activated, with an apparent activation energy approximately 9 k(B)T (after correction for solvent viscosity). These results indicate that polypeptide collapse is kinetically a two-state transition. Because of the observed free energy barrier, the time scale of polypeptide collapse is dramatically slower than is predicted by Langevin models for homopolymer collapse.
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Haidn, B., & Berger, N. (2003). Arbeitszeitbedarf für die Pensionspferdehaltung in landwirt-schaftlichen Betrieben. Tagungsband 6, Vechta 25.-27. März 2003, Tagung: Bau, Technik und Umwelt in der landwirtsch, 386–391.
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Hampson, B. A., Zabek, M. A., Pollitt, C. C., & Nock, B. (2011). Health and behaviour consequences of feral horse relocation. Rangel. J., 33(2), 173–180.
Abstract: Despite ongoing projects involving the breeding and release of equids into semi-wild and wild environments, insufficient information is available in the literature that describes strategies used by equids to adapt and survive in a novel environment. The aim of this study was to assess the ability of naïve, feral Equus caballus (horse) mares to cope in a novel feral horse environment and investigate possible reasons why some may not survive this challenge. Four mares taken from a semi-arid desert environment remained in good health but significantly changed their movement behaviour pattern when surrounded by prime grazing habitat in a mesic temperate grassland. Three of the four mares captured from the prime grazing habitat and released in the semi-arid desert habitat died, apparently due to stress and/or starvation, within 8 weeks of release. The fourth mare survived 4 months but lost considerable weight.The group of mares relocated to the semi-arid desert environment had difficulty adapting to relocation and did not take up the movement behaviour strategy of local horses, which required long distance treks from a central water hole to distant feeding areas at least 15 km away. The movement behaviour, range use and health consequences of relocating equids may be of interest to wildlife ecologists, animal behaviourists and horse welfare groups. The observations may be used to guide those intending on relocating managed domestic and native horses to novel habitats.
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Hare, B., Rosati, A., Kaminski, J., Bräuer, J., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2010). The domestication hypothesis for dogs' skills with human communication: a response to Udell et al. (2008) and Wynne et al. (2008). Anim Behav, 79.
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Harlow, H. F. (1950). Learning and satiation of response in intrinsically motivated complex puzzle performance by monkeys. J Comp Physiol Psychol, 43(4), 289–294.
Abstract: Two rhesus monkeys, given 60 two-hour sessions with a six-device mechanical puzzle showed clear evidence of learning, the curve showing ratio of incorrect to correct responses appearing quite comparable to similar curves obtained during externally rewarded situations. When, on the thirteenth day of tests, the subjects were presented with the puzzle 100 times at 6-minute intervals, the number of devices manipulated decreased regularly throughout the day, although there was no significant change in the number of times the problem assembly was attacked.
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