Social determinants of affiliation and cohesion in a population of feral horses

Mendonça, Renata S.; Pinto, Pandora; Inoue, Sota; Ringhofer, Monamie; Godinho, Raquel; Hirata, Satoshi

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2021.105496

Cited by 22 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 112 publications

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“…Field research on this population has been ongoing since 2016; researchers have mainly focused on the horses' social system and socio-spatial behaviors using novel technologies and noninvasive methodologies (Ringhofer et al, 2017(Ringhofer et al, , 2020Inoue et al, 2018Inoue et al, , 2020Mendonça et al, 2020Mendonça et al, , 2021Pinto and Hirata, 2020;Maeda et al, 2021a,b). During the study period, horses were not subjected to any anti-parasitic or other medical treatment and showed a "good" body condition (approximately 3 on a scale from 1 to 5; Pinto et al, under review).…”

Section: Population and Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…We usually started field observations at 09:30 and continued until 18:00 each day (see for more details on the methodology: Ringhofer et al, 2017;Maeda et al, 2021a;Mendonça et al, 2021). Horses were classified according to their sex and age-class as adult females, or mares, and adult males, or stallions (>4 years old); young females, or fillies, and young males, or colts (>1 year old and <4 years old);and foals (<1 year old).…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SI and MR followed one group per day (Inoue et al, 2018(Inoue et al, , 2020Ringhofer et al, 2020). RM and PP follow three to six groups per day (Mendonça et al, 2021). TM focused on inter-group dynamics and with the help of a drone could follow up to 20 groups per day (Maeda et al, 2021a).…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Telemetry data from a collared wolf, between August and November 2018, provided information on wolves' feeding sites, including kill sites (Freitas, 2019). The horse DNA present in the wolves' scat was analyzed and compared with genotypes obtained through the analyses of feces of identified horses from 2017 to 2021 (n = 200) (Freitas, 2019;Mendonça et al, 2021). Horses found in wolf scat and identifiable carcasses were considered "dead."…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result of their harem stability, horses develop long-term inter-sexual social bonds that have been proposed to promote cohesiveness to cope with outgroup male harassment and predation pressures (Feh, 1999;Linklater et al, 1999;Cameron et al, 2009); this ultimately contributes to increased female reproductive success (Cameron et al, 2009). Long-lasting bonds among females are maintained even after the death of the harem male; a new male often takes over the female unit (Klingel, 1982;Rubenstein, 1994;Mendonça et al, 2021). Despite the ubiquitous bond stability, adult females can voluntarily transfer to other harems (Berger, 1986;Rutberg, 1990;Monard et al, 1996) depending on factors such as stallion age, subordinate male presence, and harem size (Stevens, 1988).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Population Characteristics of Feral Horses Impacted by Anthropogenic Factors and Their Management Implications

et al. 2022

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Feral horses form relatively stable harems over time that are characterized by long-lasting bonds among their members, a characteristic that makes them an exceptional case of a social system among terrestrial ungulates. Their social system has been described as uniform despite the wide differences in their environment and demography. Horse populations subjected to human interference often show higher levels of population instability that can ultimately compromise their reproductive success. In this article, we describe demographic and dynamic changes of a Portuguese population of Garranos in Serra d’Arga (SA), which is impacted by human and predation pressures, over six breeding seasons. Furthermore, we tested several hypotheses related to the impact of anthropogenic disturbance on the structure and dynamics of this population. Our results revealed that the SA population had relatively little human interference at the start of the project in 2016. This was supported by the natural composition of the herd (total number of individuals, 206), which consisted of several single- and multi-male harems (n = 17 and 7, respectively) and bachelor males (n = 9). However, from 2017 to 2021, SA’s Garrano population suffered a drastic decline. Approximately two-thirds of the individuals and all bachelor males disappeared, and 76% of adult female transfers occurred after the death or disappearance of the harem male. Predatory pressures and poor management of the population, which allowed illegal human interference, contributed to this population crisis. A low population growth rate, reduced birth and foal survival rates, in addition to a delayed primiparous age were observed in this population and exacerbated after its drastic decline; suggesting the viability and survival of this Garrano population were compromised. Investigating the population demographic changes and their causes and consequences can provide guidelines for managing populations and help fight the extinction of horse breeds.

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Section: Population and Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Population Characteristics of Feral Horses Impacted by Anthropogenic Factors and Their Management Implications

et al. 2022

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Does social motivation mitigate fear caused by a sudden sound in horses?

2023

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Living in a herd has multiple advantages for social species and is a primary survival strategy for prey. The presence of conspecifics, identified as a social buffer, may mitigate the individual stress response. Social isolation is, therefore, particularly stressful for horses, which are gregarious animals. However, they are not equally vulnerable to separation from the group. We tested whether more and less socially dependent horses and independent individuals would differ in their responses to novel and sudden sounds occurring in two contexts: non-social and social motivation. Twenty warmblood horses were first exposed to two social tests: to evaluate the level of social dependence (rate of restless behaviour; social isolation) and the quantity and the quality of interactions in which they were involved (stay on a paddock). Two fear audio tests were then performed to compare the responses to sudden sounds while feeding (non-social motivation; control trial) and while moving towards the herd (social motivation; experimental trial). Socially dependent horses showed more pronounced avoidance behaviour and needed much more time to resume feeding during the control trial. Hence, dependent individuals appeared to be more fearful. However, during an experimental trial, horses of both groups tended to ignore the sound or paid only limited attention to the stimulus, continuing to move forward towards their conspecifics. Thus, social motivation may mitigate fear caused by a frightening stimulus and make fearful and dependent horses more prone to face a potentially stressful event. This finding should be taken into account in horse training and management.

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Novel observation of play behaviour between a harem holder and a bachelor group of Przewalski’s horses in the wild

Bernátková,

Ceacero,

Oyunsaikhan

et al. 2023

acta ethol

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Przewalski’s horses live in stable nonterritorial families (harem) of one or more harem stallions, several mares, and their offspring. The harem stallion typically behaves aggressively towards any male intruder approaching the harem. Play behaviour is frequently observed among the group members in horses. For stallions, the most common, well-known cases of play behaviour are found between members of bachelor groups (groups of young stallions) and between the harem stallion and his offspring. The play between the harem stallion and members of the bachelor groups is, on the other hand, seemingly much rarer as a description of such events in the literature is anecdotal. In this note, we present our observation conducted in the Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area (Mongolia) and describe the play behaviour between a Przewalski’s horse harem stallion and members of a bachelor group. The observation was done as a part of broader research during which selected Przewalski’s horses’ groups were located by binoculars in daily monitoring routines and filmed from a close distance (from 150 to 800 m). Behavioural Observation Research Interactive Software (BORIS) was used to extract data from the video recordings. The observation described in this note lasted for ∼ 180 min, during which the horses engaged in three separate bouts of play and repeated inter-group association. During the whole study (241.5 h of video recordings), this was the only observation including inter-group interactions. We observed two other events during which two harems approached each other (but never merged). Our observation is the first video recording of such an event and raises the question of how prevalent this behaviour is in the Przewalski’s horses’ restored natural populations. We conclude that this behaviour is unusual or has not been sufficiently studied in wild or feral harems. Further technological advances may help reveal more information on this topic.

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Social determinants of affiliation and cohesion in a population of feral horses

Cited by 22 publications

References 112 publications

Population Characteristics of Feral Horses Impacted by Anthropogenic Factors and Their Management Implications

Population Characteristics of Feral Horses Impacted by Anthropogenic Factors and Their Management Implications

Does social motivation mitigate fear caused by a sudden sound in horses?

Novel observation of play behaviour between a harem holder and a bachelor group of Przewalski’s horses in the wild

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