Animal behaviour in a human world: A crowdsourcing study on horses that open door and gate mechanisms

Abstract

Anecdotal reports of horses opening fastened doors and gates are an intriguing way of exploring the possible scope of horses’ problem-solving capacities. The species’ natural environment has no analogues of the mechanisms involved. Scientific studies on the topic are missing, because the rate of occurrence is too low for exploration under controlled conditions. Therefore, we compiled from lay persons case reports of horses opening closed doors and gates. Additionally, we collected video documentations at the internet platform YouTube, taking care to select raw data footage of unedited, clearly described and clearly visible cases of animals with no distinct signs of training or reduced welfare. The data included individuals opening 513 doors or gates on hinges, 49 sliding doors, and 33 barred doors and gateways; mechanisms included 260 cases of horizontal and 155 vertical bars, 43 twist locks, 42 door handles, 34 electric fence handles, 40 carabiners, and 2 locks with keys. Opening was usually for escape, but also for access to food or stable-mates, or out of curiosity or playfulness. While 56 percent of the horses opened a single mechanism at one location, 44 percent opened several types of mechanism (median = 2, min. = 1, max. = 5) at different locations (median = 2, min. = 1, max. = 4). The more complex the mechanism was, the more movements were applied, varying from median 2 for door handles to 10 for carabiners. Mechanisms requiring head- or lip-twisting needed more movements, with significant variation between individuals. 74 horses reported in the questionnaire had options for observing the behaviour in stable mates, 183 did not, which indicates that the latter learned to open doors and gates either individually or from observing humans. Experience favours opening efficiency; subjects which opened several door types applied fewer movements per lock than horses which opened only one door type. We failed to identify a level of complexity of door-fastening mechanism that was beyond the learning capacity of the horse to open. Thus, all devices in frequent use, even carabiners and electric fence handles, are potentially vulnerable to opening by horses, something which needs to be considered in relation to keeping horses safely.

Horses’ (Equus Caballus) Laterality, Stress Hormones, and Task Related Behavior in Innovative Problem-Solving

“…A recent study based on anecdotal reports showed that horses are innovative in opening door and gate mechanisms (Krueger et al submitted, [49]), but experimental evidence for innovativeness in horses is still missing. The aim of this study was to establish whether 16 horses of mixed ages and breeds would show innovative behavior when confronted with an unfamiliar feeder.…”

Optimising the Efficacy of Equine Welfare Communications: Do Equine Stakeholders Differ in Their Information-Seeking Behaviour and Communication Preferences?

“…Despite some equestrians voicing negative beliefs about science [48], within the equine community we are seeing increasing engagement with scientific research through media channels. Many printed and online lay publications contain synopses of recently published research, and citizen science approaches are gaining popularity with equine researchers providing another platform through which the equine community can engage with science, e.g., [49].…”

Need or opportunity? A study of innovations in equids

“…Abnormal [ 38 , 39 ] and depressive-like behaviour [ 27 , 40 ] may occur. Individuals’ attempts to mitigate such problems may stimulate innovations associated with movement, foraging, and social contact [ 11 , 41 – 43 ]. Animals may innovate out of need when the social environment is unstable and out of opportunity when it is stable [ 16 – 18 , 21 ].…”

“…However, experimental evidence may not reflect innovation seen in non-experimental contexts and typically experiments do not provide large datasets for studying individual and environmental effects on innovative behaviour. For this reason, we used crowd-sourcing methods when searching for cases where equids developed innovative behaviour in human management [ 41 , 59 ].…”

“…Previous crowd sourcing studies have analysed the range of flexibility of animal problem-solving abilities [ 60 ], cognitive capacities in goats [ 61 ], play behaviour in dogs and horses [ 62 ], door opening techniques in horses [ 41 ], and the impact of training in dogs [ 63 ]. Several methods have been used.…”