Behavioral Laterality and Facial Hair Whorls in Horses

Shivley, C. B.; Grandin, Temple; Deesing, Mark J.

doi:10.1016/j.jevs.2016.02.238

Cited by 15 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…While whorls can vary greatly in size and shape, the location of the forehead whorl is a highly heritable trait (h = 0.83 [46]), and horses with whorls located above the eye line are harder to manage [47]. Associations between the development of neural tissue and hair whorls have been suggested as the processes occur simultaneously during embryonic development [48]. Furthermore, the direction of hair in the whorl pattern correlates with laterality, with clockwise whorls predicting left side bias and counter clockwise whorls predicting right-side bias in horses presented with a novel object [48].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Associations between the development of neural tissue and hair whorls have been suggested as the processes occur simultaneously during embryonic development [48]. Furthermore, the direction of hair in the whorl pattern correlates with laterality, with clockwise whorls predicting left side bias and counter clockwise whorls predicting right-side bias in horses presented with a novel object [48]. To the authors' knowledge, there are no published studies of any relationship between whorl location and temperament in donkeys, but the notion that lower whorls are related to calmer temperaments may align with anecdotal observations that donkeys, in general, are less reactive than horses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Morphometric Characteristics of the Skull in Horses and Donkeys—A Pilot Study

Merkies

Paraschou²,

McGreevy

2020

Animals

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Horses and donkeys belong to the genus Equus, but important differences exist between the species, many of which affect their management and welfare. This study compared skull morphology between horses and donkeys. Horse (n = 14) and donkey (n = 16) heads were obtained post-mortem, sectioned sagittally close to the midline, and photographed for subsequent measurement of various skull structures. Skull, cranial, nasal, and profile indices were calculated for topographical comparisons between the species. The olfactory bulb area (OBA), OB pitch (the angle between the hard palate and the OB axis), and whorl location (WL) were also measured. A General Linear Model determined the main effect of species with Sidak’s multiple comparisons of species’ differences among the various measurements. There was no species difference in cranial or nasal indices (p > 0.13), but donkeys had a larger cranial profile than horses (p < 0.04). Donkeys had a smaller OBA (p < 0.05) and a steeper OB pitch (p < 0.02) than horses. The WL corresponded to the level of the OB in horses but was extremely rostral in donkeys (p < 0.0001). These results show clear differentiation in skull morphology between horses and donkeys. This may be useful in validating other physiological and behavioural differences between horses and donkeys.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphometric Characteristics of the Skull in Horses and Donkeys—A Pilot Study

Merkies

Paraschou²,

McGreevy

2020

Animals

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“…In several recent studies, the relationships among facial hair whorls and behaviors were evaluated in horses. Rotation of facial hair whorl correlates with the turning response [4]. Right-lateralized horses have more clockwise facial hair whorls, whereas left-lateralized horses have more counter-clockwise ones [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heritability estimates of the position and number of facial hair whorls in Thoroughbred horses

et al. 2019

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Objective According to oral traditions of horse caretakers and trainers, the differences in the position and number of facial hair whorls may be associated with temperamental traits. Elucidating genetic background of facial hair whorls and its relationship to temperamental traits may promote more efficient breeding and maintenance of racehorses. In this study, we estimated heritabilities of the position and number of facial hair whorls in Japanese Thoroughbred horses. Results The number of facial hair whorls varied from one to four and heritability estimate in 4024 Thoroughbred horses was low ( h 2 = 0.160). The positions of facial hair whorls were categorized into high, medium, and low, based on their locations. This trait was estimated to have high heritability ( h 2 = 0.643) in 3782 Thoroughbred horses. These results indicated that a larger proportion of the variation in the studied population was due to genetic factors for facial hair whorls position. Because a similar result was also observed in another horse breed, Polish Konik horses, high heritability of facial hair whorl position may be characteristic of multiple horse breeds. We expect that these results will stimulate future studies to elucidate the relationship among temperamental traits and facial hair whorls in all horse breeds. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-019-4386-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…Even though humans are not conspecifics, horses are in frequent contact with humans, so laughter may have positive emotional relevance for horses [27]. Finally, several other studies have failed to find any lateralized emotional processing [69,116,163,168]. Thus, lateralized emotional processing needs to be further studied in ungulate livestock to better understand emotional processing, but new findings in positive social interactions already provide a good start, since they have the potential to challenge the emotional valence hypothesis.…”

Section: Emotional Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Science to Practice: A Review of Laterality Research on Ungulate Livestock

Leliveld

2019

Symmetry

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In functional laterality research, most ungulate livestock species have until recently been mainly overlooked. However, there are many scientific and practical benefits of studying laterality in ungulate livestock. As social, precocial and domestic species, they may offer insight into the mechanisms involved in the ontogeny and phylogeny of functional laterality and help to better understand the role of laterality in animal welfare. Until now, most studies on ungulate livestock have focused on motor laterality, but interest in other lateralized functions, e.g., cognition and emotions, is growing. Increasingly more studies are also focused on associations with age, sex, personality, health, stress, production and performance. Although the full potential of research on laterality in ungulate livestock is not yet exploited, findings have already shed new light on central issues in cognitive and emotional processing and laid the basis for potentially useful applications in future practice, e.g., stress reduction during human-animal interactions and improved assessments of health, production and welfare. Future research would benefit from further integration of basic laterality methodology (e.g., testing for individual preferences) and applied ethological approaches (e.g., established emotionality tests), which would not only improve our understanding of functional laterality but also benefit the assessment of animal welfare.

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Behavioral Laterality and Facial Hair Whorls in Horses

Cited by 15 publications

References 19 publications

Morphometric Characteristics of the Skull in Horses and Donkeys—A Pilot Study

Morphometric Characteristics of the Skull in Horses and Donkeys—A Pilot Study

Heritability estimates of the position and number of facial hair whorls in Thoroughbred horses

From Science to Practice: A Review of Laterality Research on Ungulate Livestock

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