Exploring horses' (Equus caballus) gaze and asymmetric ear position in relation to human attentional cues.

ABSTRACT: Studies have shown that horses are sensitive to human attentional cues. Also, there is some evidence that they might be able to infer the knowledge state of a human and communicate intentionally with us. However, this ability is not fully characterized and certain behaviors, like gaze, asymmetric ears position or vocalizations, which could work as attention-getting behaviors, have been scarcely studied in this context. The aim of the present study was to assess whether horses' gaze toward a person, asymmetric ears position and vocalizations are subject to audience effects and adjust to human attentional cues, which would suggest a communicative function. For this purpose, we adapted a protocol used with domestic dogs [Kaminski et al. 2017] and observed horses' spontaneous behavior (gaze, a

SUBMITTER: Barrera G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11496336 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature