Aleksandra Górecka-Bruzda

Cooccurrence of Yawning and Stereotypic Behaviour in Horses (Equus caballus)

Determinants of yawning are still uncertain. As yawning seems to be triggered by stress and emotional contexts, we investigated specific correlates of yawning and stereotypic behaviours in horses. Study 1 investigated correlations in time between yawning and stereotypic behaviour in stereotypic horses from the same facility; study 2, involving riding school horses, investigated the cooccurrence of yawning and stereotypic behaviour at the individual level and in response to environmental factors (feeding time). Results showed that (1) stereotypic horses yawned more than the nonstereotypic horses, (2) yawning increased at the same time periods as stereotypic behaviours did, and (3) yawning frequency was positively correlated with stereotypic behaviour frequencies (study1). Different hypotheses are discussed: direct/indirect causal relationship and other factors susceptible to trigger both yawning and stereotypies. This study, underlining for the first time a cooccurrence of yawning and stereotypic behaviour, opens a promising line of investigation of this puzzling behaviour.

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach: what about horses?

Background How do we bond to one another? While in some species, like humans, physical contact plays a role in the process of attachment, it has been suggested that tactile contacts value may greatly differ according to the species considered. Nevertheless, grooming is often considered as a pleasurable experience for domestic animals, even though scientific data is lacking. On another hand, food seems to be involved in the creation of most relationships in a variety of species. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, we used the horse training context to test the effects of food versus grooming during repeated human-horse interactions. The results reveal that food certainly holds a key role in the attachment process, while tactile contact was here clearly insufficient for bonding to occur. Conclusion/Significance This study raises important questions on the way tactile contact is perceived, and shows that large inter-species differences are to be expected.

Looking for an ideal horse: rider preferences.

ABSTRACT The aims of the present study were as follows: (1) to identify the particular characteristics of a horse that are important to riders, and (2) to examine which of these properties are significant for different categories of riders. The participants (197; 78.7% females) were surveyed using the Ideal Horse Questionnaire (IHQ), which contains items that are categorized as “physical make-up,” “behavior during riding and handling,” “training level,” and “maintenance.” “Behavior during riding and handling” (43.6% of respondents) and “physical make-up” (32.8%) were selected most frequently as the most important category, followed by “training level” (16.9%) and “maintenance” (6.7%). The responses for the questionnaire were subjected to factor analysis (FA). The first four factors of the FA, labeled “ease of handling and maintenance/sociability,” “jumping suitability,” “dressage suitability,” and “challenge” accounted for 13.7%, 11.7%, 8.6%, and 5.9% of the variance, respectively. The highest values on the 0–3 scale were obtained for items related to “ease of handling and maintenance/sociability” (mean ± SD = 1.97 ± 0.48) and “jumping suitability” (1.86 ± 0.62), followed by “dressage suitability” (1.64 ± 0.41) and “challenge” (1.20 ± 0.62). All participants desired a manageable, healthy and non-problematic horse. Men preferred a horse that was a good jumper and would challenge the rider. People who rarely rode, beginner to intermediate riders, non-competitors and all but show jumpers were not interested in a horse with a high “jumping suitability.” Only more experienced riders expected the horse to possess high capabilities and extensive training in dressage. Challenging animals were desirable to men but were avoided by leisure riders. The present study shows that ease of handling and maintenance, along with “jumping suitability,” are crucial attributes of a riding horse. Furthermore, various levels of experience and preferred equestrian activity are associated with different horse requirements.

Characterization of long-term memory, resistance to extinction, and influence of temperament during two instrumental tasks in horses

The present study investigated the influence of temperament on long-term recall and extinction of 2 instrumental tasks in 26 horses. In the first task (backward task), horses learned to walk backward, using commands given by an experimenter, in order to obtain a food reward. In the second task (active avoidance task), horses had to cross an obstacle after a bell rang in order to avoid emission of an air puff. Twenty-two months after acquisition, horses exhibited perfect recall performance in both tasks. Accordingly, no influence of temperament on recall performance could be observed for either task. In contrast, in the absence of positive or negative outcomes, the horses’ ability to extinguish their response to either task was highly variable. Resistance to extinction was related to some indicators of temperament: The most fearful horses tended to be the most resistant to extinction in the backward task, while the least sensitive horses tended to be the most resistant to extinction in the active avoidance task. These findings reveal extensive long-term memory abilities in horses and suggest an influence of temperament on learning processes other than acquisition.

Perception of environment in farm animals - a review.

Abstract Perception of the environment by farm animals is fundamental for expression of behaviour and of their adaptation to different environmental conditions. From a breeding-environmental perspective, perception becomes increasingly important when a production system negatively impacts on animals such that their normal expression of behaviour is compromised. Therefore, research on the perceptual abilities of farm animals is of crucial importance to understand the animalenvironment relationship. This review is focused on research related to sensory perception of farm animals. It should be stressed that the world of animal senses is very difficult to explore, we have limited knowledge of the complexity of the animal’s ability to perceive and process environmental stimuli.

Do Trained Dogs Discriminate Individual Body Odors of Women Better than Those of Men

Abstract:  Scent identification lineups using dogs are a potentially valuable forensic tool, but have been dismissed by some critics because of cases where a false identification was shown to have occurred. It is not known, however, why dogs appear to make more false indications to the odors of some persons than of others. In this study, human genders were compared as to the degree their individual odors are distinguishable or “attractive” to dogs. Six dogs were trained to smell an individual’s hand odor sample and then find the matching hand odor sample in a lineup of five odors. Using one‐gender lineups and two‐gender lineups with different gender ratios, it was found that dogs trained for the study identified individual women’s hand odors more accurately than those of men. It is hypothesized that this is either because of differences in chemical compounds making discrimination of women’s odors easier, or because of greater “odor attractiveness” of women’s scents to dogs.

Investigating determinants of yawning in the domestic (Equus caballus) and Przewalski (Equus ferus przewalskii) horses.

Yawning is rare in herbivores which therefore may be an interesting group to disentangle the potential function(s) of yawning behaviour. Horses provide the opportunity to compare not only animals living in different conditions but also wild versus domestic species. Here, we tested three hypotheses by observing both domestic and Przewalski horses living in semi-natural conditions: (i) that domestic horses may show an elevated rate of yawning as a result of the domestication process (or as a result of life conditions), (ii) that individuals experiencing a higher level of social stress would yawn more than individuals with lower social stress and (iii) that males would yawn more often than females. The study involved 19 Przewalski horses (PHs) and 16 domestic horses (DHs) of different breeds living in large outdoor enclosures. The results showed that there was no difference between the PH and DH in yawning frequency (YF). PHs exhibited much higher levels of social interactions than DHs. There was a positive correlation between yawning frequency and aggressive behaviours in PHs, especially males, supporting the idea that yawning may be associated with more excitatory/stressful social situations. A correlation was found between yawning frequency and affiliative behaviours in DHs, which supports the potential relationship between yawning and social context. Finally, the entire males, but not castrated males, showed much higher levels of yawning than females in both species. The intensity (rather than the valence) of the interaction may be important in triggering yawning, which could therefore be a displacement activity that helps reduce tension.

Differences between an “ideal” detection dog and dogs used by the police

Prompted by these studies and by recent evidence showing that the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) has complex cognitive skills in interacting with humans, we: i) discuss the possibility that this species may have developed the capacity to empathize with humans at a level beyond emotional contagion; ii) briefly refer to the available evidence supporting this hypothesis; and iii) outline some routes for further studies to address, in detail, the exact level of emotional and cognitive processing in dogs’ empathy toward humans. Also we call for attentions on dog-assisted interventions as a particularly promising scenario to conduct experimental studies on this topic. As a collection of functional behavioral convergences with humans, the study of dog social cognition may bring important insights to the current understanding of the emergence of complex human social skills. More specifically, the exploration of dogs’ possible empathic tendencies towards humans may turn out to be very useful for increasing knowledge about the development and maintenance of affective bonds and emotional communication between individuals and social groups.