Bercy Antoine, Ceacero Francisco, Komárková Martina
Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 00, Prague, Czech Republic.
Anim Cogn. 2025 Feb 4;28(1):8. doi: 10.1007/s10071-025-01933-6.
Rewilding can play a vital role in safeguarding biodiversity, with the grazing pressure exerted by large ungulates and controlled by their predators being a significant factor, particularly in European contexts. Domestic horses are becoming integral to such ungulates' biomass, but they may differ from truly wild species due to their domesticated origin. This raises concerns about whether feral horses retain adequate antipredator behaviours, especially in the presence of expanding, large predators like wolves. The field of antipredator behaviour research is hampered by inconsistent results and a lack of standardisation, and the behaviour of free-ranging horses remains underexplored. To address this gap, we conducted a playback experiment on semi-feral Exmoor ponies (n = 97) in the Czech Republic, exposing them to wolf howls, deer rut calls, and static noise as a control. We assessed alert behaviour and herd grouping while accounting for variables such as herd size, sex, time of day, weather conditions, environment type, presence of other ungulates, and habituation effects. Over 70% of the ponies exhibited alert behaviour in response to both wolf and deer calls. Although the magnitude of responses did not differ significantly between wolf and deer calls, both elicited distinct reactions compared to the control. Most of the studied external factors significantly affected the observed alert responses, highlighting that they must be carefully considered in such studies since these may explain the conflicting results observed in previous studies. The significant behavioural differences in reaction to the sounds indicate that the horses can differentiate them and likely still possess some innate memory, as reported in other ungulates. This is a positive sign towards reintroduction. Future research should carefully consider the validity of the testing environment, habituation effects, and other external factors to ensure robust results.
野化在保护生物多样性方面可以发挥至关重要的作用，大型有蹄类动物施加的且受其捕食者控制的放牧压力是一个重要因素，在欧洲背景下尤其如此。家马正成为此类有蹄类动物生物量的重要组成部分，但由于其驯化起源，它们可能与真正的野生物种有所不同。这引发了人们对野马是否保留足够的反捕食行为的担忧，尤其是在像狼这样不断扩张的大型捕食者存在的情况下。反捕食行为研究领域受到结果不一致和缺乏标准化的阻碍，自由放养马匹的行为仍未得到充分探索。为了填补这一空白，我们在捷克共和国对半野生的埃克斯穆尔矮种马（n = 97）进行了回放实验，让它们接触狼嚎声、鹿的发情叫声以及作为对照的静态噪音。我们在考虑诸如兽群规模、性别、一天中的时间、天气状况、环境类型、其他有蹄类动物的存在以及习惯化效应等变量的同时，评估了警戒行为和兽群分组情况。超过70%的矮种马对狼和鹿的叫声都表现出警戒行为。尽管对狼和鹿叫声的反应程度没有显著差异，但与对照相比，两者都引发了不同的反应。大多数研究的外部因素对观察到的警戒反应有显著影响，这突出表明在这类研究中必须仔细考虑这些因素，因为它们可能解释了先前研究中观察到的相互矛盾的结果。对声音反应的显著行为差异表明，马匹能够区分它们，并且可能仍然拥有一些先天记忆，正如在其他有蹄类动物中所报道的那样。这对重新引入来说是一个积极的信号。未来的研究应该仔细考虑测试环境的有效性、习惯化效应和其他外部因素，以确保获得可靠的结果。
