Volume 46, November 2016, Pages 40–46
Original Research
- a School of Animal Biology M085 and UWA Institute of Agriculture, Faculty of Science, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia
- b Department of Entomology and Nematology, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of California Davis, CA
- c State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
- Received 8 February 2016, Revised 28 June 2016, Accepted 28 June 2016, Available online 14 July 2016
Highlights
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- Horses and ponies successfully use both visual and auditory cues in object-choice tests.
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- Ponies outperform horses when responding to visual cues, but not auditory cues.
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- Success is not enhanced when cues are combined compared with when presented singly.
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- Responses are random when cues are presented simultaneously but provide conflicting information.
Abstract
Domestic
horses and ponies communicate using visual and auditory signals. It has
been reported that equines can respond to visual cues in object-choice
tests, but utilization of auditory cues, alone or associated with visual
cues, has not be investigated. Effect of equine breed type in
object-choice selection is unknown. Using object-choice tests, we
investigated the hypotheses that breed types (1) can use both visual and
auditory human-given cues; (2) that performance is enhanced when both
visual and auditory cues are presented together to signal a baited
bucket, compared with when a cue is presented singly; (3) that latency
to make a choice increases and choice is random, when auditory and
visual cues conflict; and (4) that ponies outperform horses.
Irrespective of breed type, subjects were equally successful at using
single visual, auditory, and combined cues (proportion of correct
choices: visual 0.63 ± 0.047 [P = .004], auditory 0.61 ± 0.045 [P = .013], combined 0.64 ± 0.054 [P
= .007]). In contrast to our hypothesis, combining cues did not
significantly improve the likelihood of correct choice. Ponies
outperformed horses using visual cues (P = .044). In
conflicting cue tests, 70% of subjects responded randomly; the remainder
preferentially responded to visual cues. Our study showed that horses
and ponies can respond with equal proficiency to both visual and
auditory cues, alone and combined; however, ponies outperformed horses
using visual cues. Our results may be used to improve relationships
between humans and equines, as we demonstrated the importance of
engaging both visual and auditory modalities.
Keywords
- Horse;
- Pony;
- Object-choice tests;
- Auditory cues;
- Visual cues
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