Are 6-month-old foals sensitive to dam's influence?
A recent study has shown that gently handling dams in front of their few days old foals may strongly influence the development of human-foal relationships. In the present study, we test whether 6-month-old foals remain sensitive to their dams' influence. The study was performed on 16 foal-mare dyads, with half of the mares receiving positive contacts from the experimenter in presence of their 6-month-old foals (n = 8) whereas the other mares were not handled (n = 8). All foals were tested 15 and 30-35 days later under various conditions (reaction to a motionless human, approach test, saddle-pad tolerance test). We observe a positive effect of mare' handling on foals' reactions to humans but with a high interindividual variability, suggesting a higher effect of the foals' own behavioral characteristics at this age than at earlier stages.
Henry
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UMR CNRS 6552 Ethologie-Evolution-Ecologie, Université de Rennes 1, Avenue du Général Leclerc, Campus de Beaulieu, F-35042 Rennes Cedex, France. severine.henry@univ-rennes1.fr
Briefer
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Richard-Yris
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Hausberger
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D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000833:Animals, Suckling / Q000523:psychology; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006234:Handling, Psychological; D006736:Horses / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D013694:Temperament / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors