|
Behavioral Development in Semi-feral Foals |
||
 |
||
|
||
|
Several reports in the literature have described the early development of behavior in domestic foals. Almost all the accepted “norms” presented are based on study of foals in mare and foal groups at pasture or on stalled mare and foal pairs. Most of this classic work has involved brief weekly observations, often with as little as less than one hour per foal per week. In casual and previous detailed observational descriptive studies of foals in our semi-feral herd, we have seen instances of earlier occurrence of behaviors than the published “norms.” This may be because foals in natural herd social conditions do in fact develop more rapidly than domestically managed foals, or that the sampling employed in previous studies was inadequate. The objective of the present study was to conduct detailed and reasonably intensive observation of the 2003 foals in the Havemeyer Semi-feral herd to (1) characterize first observed occurrence of all behaviors in the equid ethogram, (2) to obtain detailed quantitative data for construction of developmental time budgets, (3) to explore differences in ontogeny related to gender, harem size, number and gender of siblings, and season of birth, and (4) to evaluate efficiency of various sampling schedules extracted from the fuller data set. To date, detailed observation has been completed for 8 foals and are in progress for another. This included a minimum of 12 hours on Day 1, 3 hours on Days 2 and 3, 1.5 hours daily for Days 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8; and 3 hours weekly for Weeks 2, 3, and 4. Less complete schedules have been completed for 5 additional foals. Two more 2003 foals are yet to be born. Results thus far indicate several examples of earlier observed occurrence of behaviors.
|
||
|
This is Dorothy Russell Havemeyer Foundation Project. |
||
|
Project Update: older foals were observed by Caroline Monk in Winter
of 2003. |
||