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part of ethogram methods

Submitted by rdigregorio on Fri, 04/19/2019 - 13:52

These seven categories were broken down into playing, aggression, feeding, locomotion, grooming, affection, and observation. The playful category includes behaviors such as chasing bucking, nipping, or behaviors that displayed foal excitement. Aggressive behavior was categorized by actions such as ears back, pursing lips, pushing and any behavior in which the foal appeared agitated. The foals spent a large amount of time feeding, either grazing in the grass or nursing from the mares, which prompted a feeding category. Running, trotting, cantering, rearing, and other types of movement that changed of location of the foals were classified under locomotion. Grooming movements such as tail swatting, mane shaking, itching, etc.are innate behaviors of the foals, occuring often and seemingly unknowingly to the foal. The foals showed affection to the mare through behaviors such as necking and nuzzling. Observation included behavior such as surveying, sniffing, sticking their head through the fence and any behavior that involved the foals assessment of their surroundings. There is one table for each category that we organized, and at least three behaviors in those categories. Every table lists the behavior and is accompanied by its description, and a still image of the horses performing the behavior.

 

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