Abstract: Male horses (Equus caballus) defend harems of females (bands) year-round and throughout their lifetimes. A male's lifetime reproductive success depends upon the number of females in his harem. Although harems have previously been reported as remaining stable over many years, during the two years of this study 30 % of the adult females in an island population of feral horses changed harems during late winter. The seasonal differences in harem stability resulted from seasonal differences in the abundance and distribution of food. The spacing between band members was greater and the frequency of social interactions between them was lower in winter than in summer. In addition, the amount of time devoted to grazing increased in winter. These differences are attributed to the lower availability of suitable vegetation duirng winter. Harem stability did not depend on the age of females, the size of the harem, nor the age of the harem stallion, but did depend on the presence of subordinate stallions attached to the band. All of the females that changed bands left single-male bands; multi-male bands were stable throughout the study.

Abstract: The concept of resource management has gone hand in hand with group selection arguments. For this reason, it has been cast aside in the era of evolutionary theory which assumes that foraging strategies must have evolved under selection operating to maximise an individual's inclusive fitness. However, results from empirical studies show that under favourable environmental and social circumstances, resource management could be selectively advantageous. Much of the recent literature on plant-herbivore interactions suggest that herbivory can result in changes in the resource base which are assumed to increase the intake and fitness of the herbivore. As a result, a number of authors suggest that herbivores manage their resource utilisation to maximise the flow of nutrients from these resources. Long term territoriality or the exclusive use of a home range are the social systems most likely to favour selection for prudent resource exploitation. This review argues that, in many habitats, resource management strategies are not feasible, as individuals have little control over the way resources are depleted and renewed. Thus far, very little evidence is available showing that herbivorous mammals actively manage the resources which they utilise.

Abstract: Research on reciprocity is impaired by confusing definitions and often wrongly used statistical tests. Here, two models of the mechanism on which reciprocity may be based are discussed and an initial step towards a new fremework for its analysis is presented. A distinction is made between reciprocity and interchange. In the case of reciprocity, for one kind of act the same kind is received in return. In interchange, however, two different kinds of acts are bartered. Three types of reciprocity/interchange in social actions among all pairs of group-members are distinguished ([`]qualitative', [`]relative' and [`]absolute') on the basis of the precision of the reciprocity/interchange. Permutation procedures for association between matrices (such as the Mantel Z and two other newly derived tests) are used as a statistical test for detecting reciprocity/interchange. A rough comparison of the power of the two new tests is included. The tests can be applied to all kinds of group-living animals and to all sorts of social behaviour. The distinction between the three types of reciprocity/interchange and the matching statistical methods are also useful for defining and detecting other patterns in social interactions, like unidirectionality and associations between different kinds of social behaviour. The influence on social interactions of variables like dominance rank, age and sex can be analysed in the three forms by testing correlations between invented matrices which represent the influence of these variables (the so-called hypothesis matrices) and social interaction matrices. These methods are extended for two categories of individuals, thus allowing the investigation of, for example, reciprocity between males and females. The methods are illustrated with examples of coalition formation and grooming behaviour among captive chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes.

Abstract: Hungry rats observed a conspecific demonstrator pushing a single manipulandum, a joystick, to the right or to the left for food reward and were then allowed access to the joystick from a different orientation. The effects of right-pushing vs left-pushing observation experience on (1) response acquisition, (2) reversal of a left-right discrimination, and (3) responding in extinction, were examined. Rats that had observed left-pushing made more left responses during acquisition than rats that had observed right-pushing, and rats that had observed demonstrators pushing in the direction that had previously been reinforced took longer to reach criterion reversal and made more responses in extinction than rats that had observed demonstrators pushing in the opposite direction to that previously reinforced. These results provide evidence that rats are capable of learning a response, or a response-reinforcer contingency, through conspecific observation.

Abstract: The variation in conformation of 356 Swedish Warmblood horses is described, using a quantitative method of measuring horses. Thirty-three of the horses were elite dressage horses, 28 were elite showjumpers, 100 were riding school horses and 195 were unselected four-year-olds. Most horses had a long body form. The average height at the withers was 163.4 cm. Sixty per cent of the horses had a bench knee conformation, 50 per cent had a toe-in conformation of the forelimbs and 80 per cent had outwardly rotated hind limbs. The majority of these deviations were mild or moderate. Conformation was influenced by sex and age. Mares were smaller and had longer bodies and shorter limbs. The elite dressage horses and showjumpers had larger hock angles and more sloping scapulas than other horses. The showjumpers also had smaller fetlock angles in the front limbs. It is suggested that the larger hock angles among the elite horses may be because hocks with small angles are more prone to injury, and because small hock angles may negatively influence the ability to attain the degree of collection necessary for good performance in advanced classes.