The Contribution of Mutual Grooming to Affiliative Relationships in a Feral Misaki Horse Herd.

ABSTRACT: Although herd size, structure, stability, and social rank among Misaki feral horses have been reported, no studies have been conducted on the affiliative relationships and interactions among members in a Misaki horse herd. The validity of three hypotheses regarding the function of social grooming, the affiliative relationship strengthening hypothesis, the worsened relationship restoring hypothesis, and the grooming parasite removal hypothesis, were tested in a Misaki feral horse (Equus caballus) herd in Cape Toi, Japan. All the nine horses in the "6m" herd were investigated in terms of kinship, grooming, aggression, proximity, social rank, and social network. Mutual grooming occurred only in pairs and was almost perfectly symmetrical. For each member, there was a significant negative corre

SUBMITTER: Shimada M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7552250 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature