Abstract: We investigated how plains zebras moved across a large natural landscape by analysing the movement paths of nine zebra mares foraging out from spatially confined waterholes during the dry season in the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Botswana. Since it was essential to investigate directed movement over a range of spatial scales to determine the correct movement behaviour and strategy, we used Nams's scaling test for oriented movement. Zebras followed directed movement paths in the lower to medium spatial scales (10 m–3.7 km) and above their visual, and possibly olfactory, range. The spatial scale of directed movement suggests that zebras had a well-defined spatial awareness and cognitive ability. Seven zebras used directed movement paths, but the remaining two followed paths not significantly different to a correlated random walk (CRW). At large spatial scales (>3 km) no distinct movement pattern could be identified and paths could not be distinguished from a CRW. Foraging strategy affected the extent of directed movement: zebras with a confined dispersion of grazing patches around the central place directed their movements over a longer distance. Zebras may extend the distance at which they can direct their movement after improving their knowledge of the local environment.

Abstract: Our decisions are guided by information learnt from our environment. This information may come via personal experiences of reward, but also from the behaviour of social partners1, 2. Social learning is widely held to be distinct from other forms of learning in its mechanism and neural implementation; it is often assumed to compete with simpler mechanisms, such as reward-based associative learning, to drive behaviour3. Recently, neural signals have been observed during social exchange reminiscent of signals seen in studies of associative learning4. Here we demonstrate that social information may be acquired using the same associative processes assumed to underlie reward-based learning. We find that key computational variables for learning in the social and reward domains are processed in a similar fashion, but in parallel neural processing streams. Two neighbouring divisions of the anterior cingulate cortex were central to learning about social and reward-based information, and for determining the extent to which each source of information guides behaviour. When making a decision, however, the information learnt using these parallel streams was combined within ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These findings suggest that human social valuation can be realized by means of the same associative processes previously established for learning other, simpler, features of the environment.

Abstract: The relationship between social behaviour and skin injuries (caused by horns) of loose housed horned cows was investigated on 35 dairy farms. While the frequencies of two agonistic behaviour elements (push and chase away) were positively correlated with the occurrence of skin injuries, the frequencies of butting and homing were not. Butting appears to have an ambivalent motivation, in that its occurrence is correlated positively both with agonistic behaviour and with social licking. Horning showed a positive correlation with social licking only. Four groups of husbandry conditions that may be associated with the occurrence of social behaviour and of injuries were distinguished: i) herd management, with variables including problem solving management by the farmer, integration of new cows, and dealing with periparturient and oestrus cows; ii) human-animal relationship, with variables including ability to identify individual cows, frequency of brushing the cows, number of milkers, and frequency of personnel changes; iii) animal characteristics, with the variable of herd size; and iv) stable characteristics, with the variable of space per cow (m2). The relevance of the husbandry variables investigated here had been confirmed in a previous stepwise regression analysis (Menke 1996). The variables for herd management and human-animal relationship conditions correlated in a consistent way with the occurrence of agonistic behaviour and/or of injuries, while most of them also correlated in the opposite direction with the occurrence of social licking. Herd size correlated positively with agonistic behaviour, but negatively with social licking. Space per cow correlated negatively with agonistic behaviour and injuries. In more than 70 per cent of the herds investigated, the levels of agonistic behaviour and of skin injuries were low, implying that horned dairy cows can be kept with less risk than is often assumed. We argue that such risks strongly depend on management factors that can be improved.

Abstract: Some animals never exhibit a state that meets the behavioral definition of sleep. Others suspend or greatly reduce ‘sleep’ behavior for many weeks during the postpartum period or during seasonal migrations without any consequent ‘sleep debt.’ Rats die from one form of sleep deprivation, but sleep loss has not been shown to cause death in well-controlled studies in other vertebrate species. Some marine mammal species do not show evidence for REM sleep, and convincing evidence for this state in reptiles, fish and insects is lacking. The enormous variation in the nature of rest and sleep states across the animal kingdom and within the mammalian class has important implications for understanding the evolution and functions of sleep.

Abstract: Elephants show a rich social organization and display a number of unusual traits. In this paper, we analyse reports collected over a thirty-five year period, describing behaviour that has the potential to reveal signs of empathic understanding. These include coalition formation, the offering of protection and comfort to others, retrieving and 'babysitting' calves, aiding individuals that would otherwise have difficulty in moving, and removing foreign objects attached to others. These records demonstrate that an elephant is capable of diagnosing animacy and goal directedness, and is able to understand the physical competence, emotional state and intentions of others, when they differ from its own. We argue that an empathic understanding of others is the simplest explanation of these abilities, and discuss reasons why elephants appear to show empathy more than other non-primate species.