Abstract: Predation represents an important selective force shaping the evolution of primate behavior. Primates confronted with predators have evolved various strategies to minimize the probability of being eaten. Predation risk and hunting styles of predators should have selected for communicative and cognitive abilities linked to socioecology and life history. As studies on several socially cohesive mammals indicate, the study of anti-predator behavior represents an important tool for gaining insight into cognition, e.g., to understand how animals classify objects and events in the world around them (e.g., marmots: Blumstein, 1999; vervet monkeys: Seyfarth et al., 1980; Diana monkeys: Zuberbhler, 2000; suricates: Manser et al., 2002).

Abstract: Harmonie zwischen Mensch und Pferd und Verständnis des Reiters für körperliche Beschaffenheit und Verhaltensweise des Pferdes fordern wahre Hippologen seit Jahrhunderten. Dauernde intensive Aufmerksamkeit ermöglicht dem Pferd, kaum sichtbare Signale des Leittiers oder des Reiters (!) wahrzunehmen und blitzschnell zu befolgen. Wir müssen mit dem Pferd also nicht umgehen, als sei es unwillig oder taub.
Wenn der Reiter in perfekter Balance sitzt, möchte sein Schenkel während des Vorsetzens des gleichseitigen Pferde-Hinterbeins “selbsttätig” an den wegschwingenden Pferderumpf fallen. Dies ist der einzige Moment, in dem das Pferd eine vorwärtstreibende, seitwärtstreibende oder verhaltende Einwirkung des Reiters unmittelbar befolgen kann. Video-Aufnahmen bestätigen, was wir bereits vor über hundert Jahren wußten, was dann in unserer “Sportorganisation” aber irgendwie in Vergessenheit geriet. Natürlich dürfen wir den Schenkel nicht ständig ans Pferd fallen lassen, weil das Pferd das dann nicht mehr als Signal wertet. Wie die Schenkeleinwirkung 'an-' und 'abstellbar' ist, wird erläutert.
Für das reiterliche Niveau hierzulande ist von entscheidender Bedeutung, daß junge Reiter an der Basis mit dem “selbsttätigen Schenkel” vertraut gemacht werden, sobald sie halbwegs sattelfest geworden sind. Jugendliche erlernen ihn spielend und verlieren ihn nie mehr, Erwachsene haben es da mangels ausreichender Beweglichkeit ihres Beckenringes wesentlich schwerer. Angesichts des höchst unzureichenden Angebotes guten Reitunterrichts könnte ein Lehr-Video zu diesem Thema überaus nützlich sein. Sponsoren dafür werden hier gesucht!
Für Reiter, die den Balancesitz beherrschen und somit fühlen, wie ihre Schenkel an den wegschwingenden Pferderumpf fallen, ist Reiten fortan im Wesentlichen Selbstdisziplin.
Daß wir wichtigste Elemente der Reitkunst verlieren können, wenn wir uns nicht mehr wissenschaftlich mit ihrem Inhalt auseinandersetzen, ist für den Autor Anlaß, sich in diesem Aufsatz erneut für interdisziplinäre universitäre Forschung zur Reitlehre und für die Unterstützung solcher Projekte durch die Spitzenorganisation einzusetzen.

Abstract: Measuring HPA axis activity is the standard approach to the study of stress and welfare in farm animals. Although the reference technique is the use of blood plasma to measure glucocorticoid hormones (cortisol or corticosterone), several alternative methods such as the measurement of corticosteroids in saliva, urine or faeces have been developed to overcome the stress induced by blood sampling itself. In chronic stress situations, as is frequently the case in studies about farm animal welfare, hormonal secretions are usually unchanged but dynamic testing allows the demonstration of functional changes at several levels of the system, including the sensitization of the adrenal cortex to ACTH and the resistance of the axis to feedback inhibition by corticosteroids (dexamethasone suppression test). Beyond these procedural aspects, the main pitfall in the use of HPA axis activity is in the interpretation of experimental data. The large variability of the system has to be taken into consideration, since corticosteroid hormone secretion is usually pulsatile, follows diurnal and seasonal rhythms, is influenced by feed intake and environmental factors such as temperature and humidity, age and physiological state, just to cite the main sources of variation. The corresponding changes reflect the important role of glucocorticoid hormones in a number of basic physiological processes such as energy metabolism and central nervous system functioning. Furthermore, large differences have been found across species, breeds and individuals, which reflect the contribution of genetic factors and environmental influences, especially during development, in HPA axis functioning. Usually, these results will be integrated with data from behavioral observation, production and pathology records in a comprehensive approach of farm animal welfare.

Abstract: Decades-long field research has flowered into integrative studies that, together with experimental evidence for the requisite social learning capacities, have indicated a reliance on multiple traditions ('cultures') in a small number of species. It is increasingly evident that there is great variation in manifestations of social learning, tradition and culture among species, offering much scope for evolutionary analysis. Social learning has been identified in a range of vertebrate and invertebrate species, yet sustained traditions appear rarer, and the multiple traditions we call cultures are rarer still. Here, we examine relationships between this variation and both social intelligence-sophisticated information processing adapted to the social domain-and encephalization. First, we consider whether culture offers one particular confirmation of the social ('Machiavellian') intelligence hypothesis that certain kinds of social life (here, culture) select for intelligence: 'you need to be smart to sustain culture'. Phylogenetic comparisons, particularly focusing on our own study animals, the great apes, support this, but we also highlight some paradoxes in a broader taxonomic survey. Second, we use intraspecific variation to address the converse hypothesis that 'culture makes you smart', concluding that recent evidence for both chimpanzees and orang-utans support this proposition.

Abstract: If the large brains and great intelligence characteristic of primates were favoured by selection pressures associated with life in complex societies, then cognitive abilities and nervous systems with primate-like attributes should have evolved convergently in non-primate mammals living in large, elaborate societies in which social dexterity enhances individual fitness. The societies of spotted hyenas are remarkably like those of cercopithecine primates with respect to size, structure and patterns of competition and cooperation. These similarities set an ideal stage for comparative analysis of social intelligence and nervous system organization. As in cercopithecine primates, spotted hyenas use multiple sensory modalities to recognize their kin and other conspecifics as individuals, they recognize third-party kin and rank relationships among their clan mates, and they use this knowledge adaptively during social decision making. However, hyenas appear to rely more intensively than primates on social facilitation and simple rules of thumb in social decision making. No evidence to date suggests that hyenas are capable of true imitation. Finally, it appears that the gross anatomy of the brain in spotted hyenas might resemble that in primates with respect to expansion of frontal cortex, presumed to be involved in the mediation of social behaviour.