Cozzi Alessandro, Sighieri Claudio, Gazzano Angelo, Nicol Christine J, Baragli Paolo
Phérosynthèse Research Institute Semiochemistry and Applied Ethology, Le Rieu Neuf, 84490 - Saint Saturnin Les Apt, France.
Behav Processes. 2010 Oct;85(2):185-90. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2010.07.007. Epub 2010 Jul 24.
Gregarious animals living in permanent social groups experience intra-group competition. Conflicts over resources can escalate into costly aggression and, in some conditions, non-dispersive forms of conflict resolution may be favoured. Post-conflict friendly reunions, hence reconciliation, have been described in a variety of species. The aim of this study was to explore, for the first time, the occurrence of reconciliation in a group of domestic horses (Equus caballus) and learn more about strategies used to maintain group cohesion. The behaviour of seven horses living as permanent group in an enclosure for at least 2 years was observed by video for 108h from June to August 2007. We used a Post-Conflict/Matched Control method to assess the existence of reconciliation and third-party affiliation. Behaviours recorded Post-Conflict, or during Matched Control periods, were classified as affiliative based on previous descriptions of visual communication patterns in horses. The proportion of attracted pairs over total post-conflict situations was significantly greater than the proportion of dispersed pairs, both during dyadic interactions (p<0.001) and during triadic interactions (p=0.002). The results of the present study show that both dyadic reconciliation and third-party post-conflict affiliative interactions form important social mechanisms for managing post-conflict situations in horses.
生活在永久性社会群体中的群居动物会经历群体内部竞争。对资源的冲突可能升级为代价高昂的攻击行为，在某些情况下，非分散性的冲突解决形式可能更受青睐。冲突后的友好团聚，即和解，已在多种物种中有所描述。本研究的目的是首次探究一群家养马（Equus caballus）中和解行为的发生情况，并更多地了解用于维持群体凝聚力的策略。2007年6月至8月，通过视频对七匹在围栏中作为永久性群体生活至少两年的马的行为进行了108小时的观察。我们使用冲突后/匹配对照方法来评估和解以及第三方归属的存在情况。根据之前对马视觉交流模式的描述，将冲突后或匹配对照期间记录的行为归类为亲和行为。在二元互动（p<0.001）和三元互动（p=0.002）期间，冲突后相互吸引的配对比例显著高于分散的配对比例。本研究结果表明，二元和解以及第三方冲突后亲和互动都是管理马冲突后情况的重要社会机制。
