Vocalization in horses in response to different events

Document Type : Full Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor, Jahad Agriculture Higher Education Institute

Abstract

For communicating with the environment (other horses, foals, owner, etc.), horses have to use different methods.
To communicate, horses use their body language. Vocalization (if not the body language), seems to be the most important way of communication in the horses, though it seems they use the same tone when exposing to different events. In this study which was performed in collaboration with the electronic institute of Sharif technical university, totally 15 horses were used. The horses were exposed to different events (hunger, pain, loneliness, mating, parturition and separation of the 1-2 weeks old foals from their dams). The verbal expressions of the horses were studied using spectrogram. The results of this study showed that there were significant differences between the spectrograph of the voices of the horses, exposed to hunger, and the separation of the foals from dams. This was the same (no significant differences) when horses were exposed to loneliness, separation and the hunger. There were no significant differences between the verbal expressions of the horses while exposed to mating, parturition. One of the most important reasons why the horses do no have verbal expressions when exposing to the pain, might be the absence of the part of the brain, responsible for the pain interpretation. Morse research is to be performed to prove this. 

Keywords

References

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Veterinary Research & Biological Products
Volume 28, Issue 3 - Serial Number 3
September 2015
Pages 83-89

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History

  • Receive Date: 30 March 2015
  • Revise Date: 01 September 2015
  • Accept Date: 28 July 2015

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