Avoidance, Maze Learning and Social Dominance in Ponies

Haag, Ellen L.; Rudman, Rebecca; Houpt, Katherine A.

doi:10.2527/jas1980.502329x

Cited by 40 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…In the present case, once an individual has asserted dominance over another, the loser may then accept the status quo and defer to the winner on subsequent occasions without the need for further aggressive behaviour from the dominant individual. This 'social conditioning' has been found in numerous other animals including mammals (Haag et al 1980;Thouless and Guinness 1986), crustaceans (Fero et al 2007) and fish (McDonald et al 1968;Beacham and Newman 1987), such that individuals will give way to others who have beaten them in the past. Indeed, the apex competitor in this study, Balistoides viridescens, was never observed undertaking an aggressive interaction, despite its position at the top of the hierarchy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Competition for shelter in a high-diversity system: structure use by large reef fishes

Kerry

Bellwood

2015

Coral Reefs

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Competition among large reef fishes for shelter beneath tabular structures provides a rare opportunity to study competition in a species-rich environment. The system permits a detailed study of localised competition with major implications for coral reefs with respect to human impacts including climate change. Using underwater video cameras, this study examined competition among 30 species of large reef fishes (from nine families) for access to shelter provided by 26 tabular structures, which may be the highest reported diversity of vertebrates competing for a single resource. Mean concentrations of fishes under tabular structures were also among the highest biomass recorded on reefs (4.71 kg m -2 ). A generated dominance hierarchy for the occupation of shelter appeared to be primarily driven by the size of fishes. In contrast to previous studies, fishes higher in the hierarchy tended to exhibit the lowest levels of aggression. However, size difference between fishes was found to be strongly negatively correlated with the proportion of aggressive interactions (R 2 = 0.971, P \ 0.0001). The strong competition for the shade provided by these corals highlights concerns about future shifts in the structure of large reef fish communities as corals are lost. This is particularly concerning given the critical functional roles played by certain species of large reef fishes that utilise tabular structure for shelter and which occupy the lower ranks of the dominance hierarchy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Competition for shelter in a high-diversity system: structure use by large reef fishes

Kerry

Bellwood

2015

Coral Reefs

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“…Unfortunately, social dominance does not appear to predict learning ability. Haag et al (1980) and Mader and Price (1980) have also observed that there was no correlation between rank in the dominance hierarchy and learning ability.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The learning ability of adult (Gardner, 1937;Haag et al, 1980;Mader and Price, 1980) and juvenile (Kratzer et al, 1977;Fiske and Potter, 1979) horses has been studied, but the learning ability of artificially reared horses has not been compared with that of those normally reared 9 Experiments with other species such as dogs (Melzack and Scott, 1957) and cats (Seitz, 1959) indicate that learning ability might be impaired 9 Learning ability may alter a horse's trainability. If artificially reared homes learn more slowly, the information would be of considerable economic interest to the horse industry, because homes must be trained in order to be used for racing, driving or pleasure riding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning Ability of Orphan Foals, of Normal Foals and of Their Mothers

Houpt

Parsons

Hintz

1982

Journal of Animal Science

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The maze learning ability of six pony foals that had been weaned at birth was compared to that of six foals reared normally. The foals' learning ability was also compared to their mothers' learning ability at the same task; the correct turn in a single choice point maze. The maze learning test was conducted when the foals were 6 to 8 mo old and after the mothered foals had been weaned. There was no significant difference between the ability of orphaned (weaned at birth) and mothered foals in their ability to learn to turn left (6 +/- .7 and 5.1 +/- .1 trials, respectively) or to learn the reversal, to turn right (6.7 +/- .6 and 6.2 +/- .6 trials, respectively). The orphan foals spent significantly more time in the maze in their first exposure to it than the mothered foals (184 +/- 42 vs 55 +/- 15 s. Mann Whitney U = 7, P less than .05). The mothers of the foals (n = 11) learned to turn left as rapidly as the foals (5.9 +/- .7 trials), but they were slower to learn to turn right (9.8 +/- 1.4 vs 6.4 +/- .4 trials, Mann Whitney U = 33, P less than .05), indicating that the younger horses learned more rapidly. There was no correlation between the trials to criteria of the mare and those of her foal, but there was a significant negative correlation between rank in trials to criteria and age (r = -65, P less than .05) when data from the mare and foal trials were combined. The dominance hierarchy of the mares was determined using a paired feeding test in which two horses competed for one bucket of feed. Although there was no correlation between rank in the hierarchy and maze learning ability, there was a correlation between body weight and rank in the hierarchy (r = .7, P less than .05). This may indicate either that heavier horses are likely to be dominant or that horses high in dominance gain more weight. Maternal deprivation did not appear to seriously retard learning of a simple maze by foals, although the orphans moved more slowly initially. The lack of maternal influence on learning is also reflected in the lack of correlation between the mare's learning ability and that of her foal. Young horses appear to learn more rapidly than older horses.

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“…Both positive and negative reinforcements connect the specific stimulus (Tarpy 1975). Equine learning ability is similar under primary positive and primary negative reinforcement (Haag et al 1980). Younger horses show faster rate of learning (Mader & Price 1980).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Learning Behavior of Horse Colts: a Case Study of Nepal Cavalry Barrack, Singha Durbar, Kathmandu, Nepal

Kamal

Singh

2015

J. Inst. Sci. Tech.

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This paper tries to study learning ability behaviors of horse colts in Nepal Cavalry Barrack (NBC), Singha Durbar, Kathmandu. The learning ability of horse colts has been found different behaviors during learning stages. The horses showed different behaviors like fighting, flighting, kicking and biting during trainings. There was no difference of learning ability among three months age of colts. The Learning Ability Index (LAI) has been found as 56, 55, 54, 55, 51 and 64 for the colts A, B, C, D, E and F, respectively.

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Avoidance, Maze Learning and Social Dominance in Ponies

Cited by 40 publications

References 10 publications

Competition for shelter in a high-diversity system: structure use by large reef fishes

Competition for shelter in a high-diversity system: structure use by large reef fishes

Learning Ability of Orphan Foals, of Normal Foals and of Their Mothers

Learning Behavior of Horse Colts: a Case Study of Nepal Cavalry Barrack, Singha Durbar, Kathmandu, Nepal

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