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Ahrendt, L. P., Labouriau, R., Malmkvist, J., Nicol, C. J., & Christensen, J. W. (2015). Development of a standard test to assess negative reinforcement learning in horses. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 169, 38–42.
Abstract: Most horses are trained by negative reinforcement. Currently, however, no standardised test for evaluating horses' negative reinforcement learning ability is available. The aim of this study was to develop an objective test to investigate negative reinforcement learning in horses. Twenty-four Icelandic horses (3 years old) were included in this study. The horses were tested in a pressure-release task on three separate days with 10, 7 and 5 trials on each side, respectively. Each trial consisted of pressure being applied on the hindquarter with an algometer. The force of the pressure was increased until the horse moved laterally away from the point of pressure. There was a significant decrease in required force over trials on the first test day (P<0.001), but not the second and third day. The intercepts on days 2 and 3 differed significantly from day 1 (P<0.001), but not each other. Significantly stronger force was required on the right side compared to the left (P<0.001), but there was no difference between first and second side tested (P=0.56). Individual performance was evaluated by median-force and the change in force over trials on the first test day. These two measures may explain different characteristics of negative reinforcement learning. In conclusion, this study presents a novel, standardised test for evaluating negative reinforcement learning ability in horses.
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Amici, F., Widdig, A., Lehmann, J., & Majolo, B. (2019). A meta-analysis of interindividual differences in innovation. Anim. Behav., 155, 257–268.
Abstract: The ability to innovate and the social transmission of innovations have played a central role in human evolution. However, innovation is also crucial for other animals, by allowing them to cope with novel socioecological challenges. Although innovation plays such a central role in animals' lives, we still do not know the conditions required for innovative behaviour to emerge. Here, we focused on interindividual differences in innovation by (1) extensively reviewing existing literature on innovative behaviour in animals and (2) quantitatively testing the different evolutionary hypotheses that have been proposed to explain interindividual variation in innovation propensity during foraging tasks. We ran a series of phylogenetically controlled mixed-effects meta-regression models to determine which hypotheses (if any) are supported by currently available empirical studies. Our analyses show that innovation is more common in individuals that are older and belong to the larger sex, but also in more neophilic and/or explorative individuals. Moreover, these effects change depending on the study setting (i.e. wild versus captive). Our results provide no clear support to the excess of energy or the bad competitor hypotheses and suggest that study setting and interindividual differences in traits related to personality are also important predictors of innovation.
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Amodio, P., Boeckle, M., Schnell, A. K., Ostojic, L., Fiorito, G., & Clayton, N. S. (2018). Grow Smart and Die Young: Why Did Cephalopods Evolve Intelligence? Trends. Ecol. Evol., .
Abstract: Intelligence in large-brained vertebrates might have evolved through independent, yet similar processes based on comparable socioecological pressures and slow life histories. This convergent evolutionary route, however, cannot explain why cephalopods developed large brains and flexible behavioural repertoires: cephalopods have fast life histories and live in simple social environments. Here, we suggest that the loss of the external shell in cephalopods (i) caused a dramatic increase in predatory pressure, which in turn prevented the emergence of slow life histories, and (ii) allowed the exploitation of novel challenging niches, thus favouring the emergence of intelligence. By highlighting convergent and divergent aspects between cephalopods and large-brained vertebrates we illustrate how the evolution of intelligence might not be constrained to a single evolutionary route.
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Apollonio, M., Mattioli, L., Scandura, M., Mauri, L., Gazzola, A., & Avanzinelli, E. (2004). Wolves in the Casentinesi Forests: insights for wolf conservation in Italy from a protected area with a rich wild prey community. Biol Conserv, 120.
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Arnold, C., Krüger, K., & Bojer, M. (2020). Die Wirkung von Yoga auf Reiterinnen. Wald: Xenophon Verlag.
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Bachmann, I., Audige, L., & Stauffacher, M. (2003). Risk factors associated with behavioural disorders of crib-biting, weaving and box-walking in Swiss horses. Equine Vet J, 35(2), 158–163.
Abstract: REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY: Studies on the prevalence of behavioural disorders in horses and on associated risk factors have revealed inconsistent results. There are many studies on the neuropharmacological, surgical or mechanical therapy of stereotypies, but little is known about their causation. OBJECTIVES: To explore risk factors associated with the occurrence of behavioural disorders in horses. METHODS: A sample of horse owners, selected randomly and representative for Switzerland, was contacted in a postal survey. Answers were provided for 622 stables (response rate 35.2%). Individual data of 2,341 horses were examined with path analysis (multivariable linear and logistic regression), and adjustment made for possible confounding effects due to age and breed. RESULTS: Out of 60 possible risk factors, 11 were associated with the outcome at the univariable level (null-hypothesis path model) and 3 factors remained after the backward logistic regression procedure. Mature Warmbloods and Thoroughbreds, assessed by the owners to be reactive, fed 4 times a day and without daily pasture, had increased odds of displaying crib-biting, weaving and box-walking. Furthermore, indirect associations of 5 factors with the outcome were identified. CONCLUSIONS: The final logistic regression model of risk factors leads to the hypotheses that causal prevention of stereotypic behaviours should be based upon housing and management conditions which allow tactile contact with other horses (e.g. mutual grooming), daily free movement (paddock or pasture), as well as the provision of high amounts of roughage but of little or no concentrates. POTENTIAL CLINICAL RELEVANCE: It is one of the aims of population medicine to prevent the development of behavioural disorders. Further research is needed to test the concluding hypotheses in experimental studies or to verify them in the context of similar observational studies.
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Baker, P. J., Funk, S. M., Harris, S., & White, P. C. L. (2000). Flexible spatial organization of urban foxes, Vulpes vulpes, before and during an outbreak of sarcoptic mange. Anim. Behav., 59(1), 127–146.
Abstract: The social and spatial organization of urban fox groups prior to and during an outbreak of sarcoptic mange was compared with predictions derived from the resource dispersion hypothesis (RDH). We investigated the availability of three key resources. Neither daytime rest sites nor breeding sites appeared to be limited in availability. The availability of food deliberately supplied by local householders was examined by questionnaire surveys. The daily and weekly amount of food supplied was greatly in excess of the minimum requirements of a pair of foxes, but was consistent between territories. The availability of this food source increased markedly as a result of more people feeding the foxes. In agreement with the RDH, group size prior to the outbreak of mange increased from 2.25 animals (N=4) to 6.57 animals (N=7). Before the outbreak of mange, two territories were divided. Increased scavenge availability on smaller territories may have promoted these changes. Excluding these spatial changes, territories were very stable between years. After the outbreak of mange, group size declined as a direct result of mange-induced mortality. Surviving animals increased their ranges only after neighbouring groups had died out. Ranges did not increase in size in response to a decline in food availability. Nor were the increases in range size associated with the relinquishment of parts of the existing territory. These postmange changes are contrary to the RDH. Three factors may have promoted these changes: the elimination of interstitial space, the forced dispersal of young or future division of the territory.
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Bandini, E., Motes-Rodrigo, A., Steele, M. P., Rutz, C., & Tennie, C. (2020). Examining the mechanisms underlying the acquisition of animal tool behaviour. Biol. Lett., 16(2020122).
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Bandini, E., & Tennie C. (2020). Exploring the role of individual learning in animal tool-use. PeerJ, 25, 8:e9877.
Abstract: The notion that tool-use is unique to humans has long been refuted by the growing number of observations of animals using tools across various contexts. Yet, the mechanisms behind the emergence and sustenance of these tool-use repertoires are still heavily debated. We argue that the current animal behaviour literature is biased towards a social learning approach, in which animal, and in particular primate, tool-use repertoires are thought to require social learning mechanisms (copying variants of social learning are most often invoked). However, concrete evidence for a widespread dependency on social learning is still lacking. On the other hand, a growing body of observational and experimental data demonstrates that various animal species are capable of acquiring the forms of their tool-use behaviours via individual learning, with (non-copying) social learning regulating the frequencies of the behavioural forms within (and, indirectly, between) groups. As a first outline of the extent of the role of individual learning in animal tool-use, a literature review of reports of the spontaneous acquisition of animal tool-use behaviours was carried out across observational and experimental studies. The results of this review suggest that perhaps due to the pervasive focus on social learning in the literature, accounts of the individual learning of tool-use forms by naïve animals may have been largely overlooked, and their importance under-examined.
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Baragli, P., Scopa, C., Maglieri, V., & Palagi, E. (2021). If horses had toes: demonstrating mirror self recognition at group level in Equus caballus. Anim. Cogn., .
Abstract: Mirror self-recognition (MSR), investigated in primates and recently in non-primate species, is considered a measure of self-awareness. Nowadays, the only reliable test for investigating MSR potential skills consists in the untrained response to a visual body mark detected using a reflective surface. Here, we report the first evidence of MSR at group level in horses, by facing the weaknesses of methodology present in a previous pilot study. Fourteen horses were used in a 4-phases mirror test (covered mirror, open mirror, invisible mark, visible colored mark). After engaging in a series of contingency behaviors (looking behind the mirror, peek-a-boo, head and tongue movements), our horses used the mirror surface to guide their movements towards their colored cheeks, thus showing that they can recognize themselves in a mirror. The analysis at the group level, which 'marks' a turning point in the analytical technique of MSR exploration in non-primate species, showed that horses spent a longer time in scratching their faces when marked with the visible mark compared to the non-visible mark. This finding indicates that horses did not see the non-visible mark and that they did not touch their own face guided by the tactile sensation, suggesting the presence of MSR in horses. Although a heated debate on the binary versus gradualist model in the MSR interpretation exists, recent empirical pieces of evidence, including ours, indicate that MSR is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon that appeared once in phylogeny and that a convergent evolution mechanism can be at the basis of its presence in phylogenetically distant taxa.
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