Abstract: It has recently been shown that some non-human animals can cross-modally recognize members of their own taxon. What is unclear is just how plastic this recognition system can be. In this study, we investigate whether an animal, the domestic horse, is capable of spontaneous cross-modal recognition of individuals from a morphologically very different species. We also provide the first insights into how cross-modal identity information is processed by examining whether there are hemispheric biases in this important social skill. In our preferential looking paradigm, subjects were presented with two people and playbacks of their voices to determine whether they were able to match the voice with the person. When presented with familiar handlers subjects could match the specific familiar person with the correct familiar voice. Horses were significantly better at performing the matching task when the congruent person was standing on their right, indicating marked hemispheric specialization (left hemisphere bias) in this ability. These results are the first to demonstrate that cross-modal recognition in animals can extend to individuals from phylogenetically very distant species. They also indicate that processes governed by the left hemisphere are central to the cross-modal matching of visual and auditory information from familiar individuals in a naturalistic setting.

Abstract: Solving horse nutrition challenges require contributions from Psychology, Biology, Agriculture, and Veterinary Medicine because these are biological challenges of an anthropological nature. The domesticated horse has shifted from an animal of war, transportation, and farmwork, to a companion enjoyed for sport, leisure and recreation. The first realization and responsibility must lie in the fact that it is the owners and managers which are the source of many of the horses’ challenges. Nutritional challenges include: defining requirements and absorption of nutrients, improving feed efficiencies for performance, improving feeding management and eating behaviors, and preventing or treating clinical problems. These challenges can be addressed through science, horse management, and education. Many of today’s challenges in horse nutrition can be related to the equine genome and genetics. Those that can be addressed with nutritional consequences include Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy, Equine Metabolic Syndrome, Recurrent Exertional Rhabdomyolysis, Glycogen Branching Enzyme Deficiency, Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis, and Development Orthopedic Disorders. It is the scientific understanding of cellular processes in relation to nutrients which address the symptoms associated with these diseases. Consequently, feeding management can be changed to actually treat the disease. The most recent advances in equine nutrition implement the use of molecular and cellular based techniques to understand how nutrients are needed during times of stress, feed withdrawal and to maintain gut health. For example, the absorptive capacity and transporter gene expression and localization, are now being quantified. We are also now assessing the impact of the loss of reproductive endocrines on calcium and phosphorus homeostasis in the horse. Additionally, bioluminescent pathogenic bacteria have been utilized to view attachment rates in the gastrointestinal tract of the horse. These are merely examples of the approaches of science to these nutritional challenges. Science is of little use unless it is incorporated into improved management of horses. Every type of horse requires different management and good husbandry. In our country, 70+% of the horses are kept in small herds, on limited acreage, and used for recreation and sport. Since we have taken the horse out of its natural environment and subjected it to these roles, we now seek to determine ways to feed the horse in our environments; i.e. obesity, inconsistent exercise, confinement, surgery, competition, diseases. Private horse feed agribusinesses have aggressively positioned excellent products with claims to improve health, reproduction, performance, and even horse happiness. Owners and managers seek unbiased science upon which they ultimately make their own decisions. General challenge categories seem to be feeding geriatric horses, active performance horses, and idle horses with secondary metabolic problems. Thus, feeding recommendations include the determination of specific horse nutrient requirements, maximization of available forages, providing other nutrients, and exercise to manage horses more as horses. Private and public companies and Extension systems exist to provide online and other sources of information. As more and more people own horses as a hobby and for recreation, they share responsibility to inform themselves on how to best feed and care for their horses.

Abstract: We presented small groups of chimpanzees with two collective action situations, in which action was necessary for reward but there was a disincentive for individuals to act owing to the possibility of free-riding on the efforts of others. We found that in simpler scenarios (experiment 1) in which group size was small, there was a positive relationship between rank and action with more dominant individuals volunteering to act more often, particularly when the reward was less dispersed. Social tolerance also seemed to mediate action whereby higher tolerance levels within a group resulted in individuals of lower ranks sometimes acting and appropriating more of the reward. In more complex scenarios, when group size was larger and cooperation was necessary (experiment 2), overcoming the problem was more challenging. There was highly significant variability in the action rates of different individuals as well as between dyads, suggesting success was more greatly influenced by the individual personalities and personal relationships present in the group.