The study of ecology and horses involves examining the interactions between horses and their environments, including both natural and managed ecosystems. This field explores how horses influence and are influenced by various ecological factors such as vegetation, soil, water sources, and other animal species. Research in this area may address topics such as the grazing behavior of horses, their impact on plant communities, and the role of horses in nutrient cycling within ecosystems. Additionally, studies may investigate the effects of environmental changes and human activities on horse populations and their habitats. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that analyze the ecological roles of horses, their interactions with ecosystems, and the implications for conservation and land management.
Bernor RL, Cirilli O, Bukhsianidze M, Lordkipanidze D, Rook L.The Equus datum has been established as a geochronologic 'instantaneous' migratory event of a North American Equus species into Eurasia at the beginning of the Pleistocene (2.58 Ma). A remarkable radiation of Equus followed across Eurasia and Africa. Dmanisi includes excellent remains of Equus, well calibrated between 1.85 and 1.76 Ma. Our morphologic and morphometric analyses of the augmented Dmanisi Equus sample support the co-occurrence of Equus stenonis and Equus altidens in the sequence. Dmanisi E. stenonis is found to be morphologically similar to the European E. stenonis populations a...
Zhou R, Yang J, Zhang K, Qi Y, Ma W, Wang Z, Ente M, Li K.The absolute dominant species that infests wild population of Przewalski's horse (Equus przewalskii) is Gasterophilus pecorum, and feces of released Przewalski's horse, a habitat odor, plays an important role in mating and ovipositing locations of G. pecorum. To screen out unique volatiles for attracting G. pecorum, volatiles from fresh feces of released horses at stages of pre-oviposition (PREO), oviposition (OVIP), and post-oviposition (POSO) of G. pecorum, and feces with three different freshness states (i.e., Fresh, Semi-fresh, and Dry) at OVIP were collected by dynamic headspace adsorptio...
Harvey AM, Morton JM, Mellor DJ, Russell V, Chapple RS, Ramp D.We previously developed a Ten-Stage Protocol for scientifically assessing the welfare of individual free-roaming wild animals using the Five Domains Model. The protocol includes developing methods for measuring or observing welfare indices. In this study, we assessed the use of remote camera traps to evaluate an extensive range of welfare indicators in individual free-roaming wild horses. Still images and videos were collected and analysed to assess whether horses could be detected and identified individually, which welfare indicators could be reliably evaluated, and whether behaviour could be...
The Bering Land Bridge (BLB) last connected Eurasia and North America during the Late Pleistocene. Although the BLB would have enabled transfers of terrestrial biota in both directions, it also acted as an ecological filter whose permeability varied considerably over time. Here we explore the possible impacts of this ecological corridor on genetic diversity within, and connectivity among, populations of a once wide-ranging group, the caballine horses (Equus spp.). Using a panel of 187 mitochondrial and eight nuclear genomes recovered from present-day and extinct caballine horses sampled acros...
Kalmykov NP.This report analyzes a find of fossils of Pliocene three-toed horse (Hipparion tchicoicum) in western Transbaikalia. The age of the mammalian fauna from red-brown clay in the Udunga locality indicates that Chikoi hipparion lived in the south of Eastern Siberia as early as the second half of the Early Pliocene; its remains in this area were known only from the red beds of the Upper Pliocene. This find made it possible to fill the existing hiatus (Early Pliocene) in its stratigraphic distribution: Late Miocene-Late Pliocene. The range of this three-toed horse species did not go beyond the border...
Castellaro G, Orellana CL, Escanilla JP.For an adequate management of natural grasslands, the knowledge and understanding of the dietary habits of herbivores and their trophic interactions are fundamental. During two summer seasons, in a mountain range of a sector of the Coquimbo Region, Chile, the botanical composition, diversity, and similarity of the diets of horses, European brown hares, and guanacos were studied, as was the selectivity of the main grassland plant species, using feces microhistology. The contribution of hydromorphic grasses was similar in the diets of guanacos (35.90 ± 7.27%) and horses (32.25 ± 4.50%), differ...
Lundgren EJ, Ramp D, Stromberg JC, Wu J, Nieto NC, Sluk M, Moeller KT, Wallach AD.Megafauna play important roles in the biosphere, yet little is known about how they shape dryland ecosystems. We report on an overlooked form of ecosystem engineering by donkeys and horses. In the deserts of North America, digging of ≤2-meter wells to groundwater by feral equids increased the density of water features, reduced distances between waters, and, at times, provided the only water present. Vertebrate richness and activity were higher at equid wells than at adjacent dry sites, and, by mimicking flood disturbance, equid wells became nurseries for riparian trees. Our results suggest t...
Jota Baptista C, Sós E, Madeira de Carvalho L.Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii) is a subspecies of Equus ferus classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), whose gastrointestinal (GI) parasitism has been studied in different populations, in situ and ex situ, during the last decades. We aimed to summarize the information available on the subject. Methods: In this review, we collected information from distinct published literature, interpreted it, compared it and related the Przewalski's horse biology and ecology with different findings. Results: Many similarities can be found between the...
Evans-Clay M, Porch N, Maguire G, Weston MA.Beaches are under increasing pressure from a wide range of anthropogenic threats, including human trampling, vehicular crushing, and horse riding/training. The impacts of horses on beaches are unknown. We index the relative abundance, diversity and assemblage composition of beach invertebrates at paired sites with and without horses at nine beaches (locations) across Victoria, Australia. Horses were more common at sites where they were allowed and sites (horse versus no horse) within beaches were well matched, having similar slope, seaweed coverage, human and dog activity-attributes which vari...
MacLaren JA.Locomotion in terrestrial tetrapods is reliant on interactions between distal limb bones (e.g. metapodials and phalanges). The metapodial-phalangeal joint in horse (Equidae) limbs is highly specialized, facilitating vital functions (shock absorption; elastic recoil). While joint shape has changed throughout horse evolution, potential drivers of these modifications have not been quantitatively assessed. Here, I examine the morphology of the forelimb metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint of horses and their extinct kin (palaeotheres) using geometric morphometrics and disparity analyses, within a phylo...
Maeda T, Ochi S, Ringhofer M, Sosa S, Sueur C, Hirata S, Yamamoto S.The study of non-human multilevel societies can give us insights into how group-level relationships function and are maintained in a social system, but their mechanisms are still poorly understood. The aim of this study was to apply spatial association data obtained from drones to verify the presence of a multilevel structure in a feral horse society. We took aerial photos of individuals that appeared in pre-fixed areas and collected positional data. The threshold distance of the association was defined based on the distribution pattern of the inter-individual distance. The association rates o...
García-Carrasco JM, Muñoz AR, Olivero J, Segura M, Real R.West Nile virus is a widely spread arthropod-born virus, which has mosquitoes as vectors and birds as reservoirs. Humans, as dead-end hosts of the virus, may suffer West Nile Fever (WNF), which sometimes leads to death. In Europe, the first large-scale epidemic of WNF occurred in 1996 in Romania. Since then, human cases have increased in the continent, where the highest number of cases occurred in 2018. Using the location of WNF cases in 2017 and favorability models, we developed two risk models, one environmental and the other spatio-environmental, and tested their capacity to predict in 2018...
León B, Jiménez-Sánchez C, Retamosa-Izaguirre M.Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) is an arbovirus transmitted by arthropods, widely distributed in the Americas that, depending on the subtype, can produce outbreaks or yearly cases of encephalitis in horses and humans. The symptoms are similar to those caused by dengue virus and in the worst-case scenario, involve encephalitis, and death. MaxEnt is software that uses climatological, geographical, and occurrence data of a particular species to create a model to estimate possible niches that could have these favorable conditions. We used MaxEnt with a total of 188 registers of VEEV pr...
Stothart MR, Greuel RJ, Gavriliuc S, Henry A, Wilson AJ, McLoughlin PD, Poissant J.Studies of microbiome variation in wildlife often emphasize host physiology and diet as proximate selective pressures acting on host-associated microbiota. In contrast, microbial dispersal and ecological drift are more rarely considered. Using amplicon sequencing, we characterized the bacterial microbiome of adult female (n = 86) Sable Island horses (Nova Scotia, Canada) as part of a detailed individual-based study of this feral population. Using data on sampling date, horse location, age, parental status, and local habitat variables, we contrasted the ability of spatiotemporal, life history...
Springer A, Glass A, Topp AK, Strube C.Ticks transmit a variety of pathogens affecting both human and animal health. In temperate and cold regions of Europe (Western, Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe), the most relevant zoonotic tick-borne pathogens are tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), Borrelia spp. and Anaplasma phagocytophilum. More rarely, Rickettsia spp., Neoehrlichia mikurensis, and zoonotic Babesia spp. are identified as a cause of human disease. Domestic animals may also be clinically affected by these pathogens, and, furthermore, can be regarded as sentinel hosts for their occurrence in a certain area, or even pla...
Vorobieva NV, Makunin AI, Druzhkova AS, Kusliy MA, Trifonov VA, Popova KO, Polosmak NV, Molodin VI, Vasiliev SK, Shunkov MV, Graphodatsky AS.A growing number of researchers studying horse domestication come to a conclusion that this process happened in multiple locations and involved multiple wild maternal lines. The most promising approach to address this problem involves mitochondrial haplotype comparison of wild and domestic horses from various locations coupled with studies of possible migration routes of the ancient shepherds. Here, we sequenced complete mitochondrial genomes of six horses from burials of the Ukok plateau (Russia, Altai Mountains) dated from 2.7 to 1.4 thousand years before present and a single late Pleistocen...
Janczarek I, Stachurska A, Kędzierski W, Wiśniewska A, Ryżak M, Kozioł A.Predatory attacks on horses can become a problem in some parts of the world, particularly when considering the recovering gray wolf populations. The issue studied was whether horses transformed by humans and placed in stable-pasture environments had retained their natural abilities to respond to predation risk. The objective of the study was to determine the changes in cardiac activity, cortisol concentrations, and behavior of horses in response to the vocalizations of two predators: the gray wolf (Canis lupus), which the horses of the breed studied had coevolved with but not been exposed to r...
Babenko VV, Millard A, Kulikov EE, Spasskaya NN, Letarova MA, Konanov DN, Belalov IS, Letarov AV.The viromes of the mammalian lower gut were shown to be heavily dominated by bacteriophages; however, only for humans were the composition and intervariability of the bacteriophage communities studied in depth. Here we present an ecogenomics survey of dsDNA bacteriophage diversity in the feces of horses (), comparing two groups of stabled horses, and a further group of feral horses that were isolated on an island. Our results indicate that the dsDNA viromes of the horse feces feature higher richness than in human viromes, with more even distribution of genotypes. No over-represented phage geno...
Pinto P, Hirata S.In some feral horse populations, adult females are either associated with a single male or multiple males (stallions). However, little is known on why such groups with more than one male exist, considering that stallions fight to monopolize females. Body size is often an important determinant of male fighting ability and/or dominance rank and, consequently, reproductive success. Stallions may, therefore, vary in "quality" which could be a differentiating factor between single-stallion and multi-stallion males. We observed feral Garrano horses in Northern Portugal and examined the relationship ...
Regan CE, Medill SA, Poissant J, McLoughlin PD.The adult sex ratio (ASR) is important within ecology due to its predicted effects on behaviour, demography and evolution, but research examining the causes and consequences of ASR bias have lagged behind the studies of sex ratios at earlier life stages. Although ungulate ASR is relatively well-studied, exceptions to the usual female-biased ASR challenge our understanding of the underlying drivers of biased ASR and provide an opportunity to better understand its consequences. Some feral ungulate populations, including multiple horse populations, exhibit unusually male-biased ASR. For example, ...
Shimada M, Suzuki N.Although herd size, structure, stability, and social rank among Misaki feral horses have been reported, no studies have been conducted on the affiliative relationships and interactions among members in a Misaki horse herd. The validity of three hypotheses regarding the function of social grooming, the affiliative relationship strengthening hypothesis, the worsened relationship restoring hypothesis, and the grooming parasite removal hypothesis, were tested in a Misaki feral horse () herd in Cape Toi, Japan. All the nine horses in the "6m" herd were investigated in terms of kinship, grooming, ag...
How MJ, Gonzales D, Irwin A, Caro T.Of all hypotheses advanced for why zebras have stripes, avoidance of biting fly attack receives by far the most support, yet the mechanisms by which stripes thwart landings are not yet understood. A logical and popular hypothesis is that stripes interfere with optic flow patterns needed by flying insects to execute controlled landings. This could occur through disrupting the radial symmetry of optic flow via the aperture effect (i.e. generation of false motion cues by straight edges), or through spatio-temporal aliasing (i.e. misregistration of repeated features) of evenly spaced stripes. By r...
Williams CA, Kenny LB, Weinert JR, Sullivan K, Meyer W, Robson MG.The objective of this study was to determine whether rotational grazing generates horse, pasture, or cost benefits over continuous grazing. The study established two replicates (1.57 ha each) of rotational (R; four grazing sections and a stress lot per replicate, where horses were fed a moderate quality grass hay at 2% of body weight when not grazing) and continuous (C) grazing systems (treatments). Twelve Standardbred mares were grazed for an overall stocking rate of 0.52 ha/horse ( = 3 in each pasture). Recommended management practices for each grazing system were followed for 27 mo includin...
Babesia caballi and Theileria equi are widely recognized as causative agents of equine pirolasmosis (EP), an acute, sub-acute, and chronic disease of equines, with relevant economic impact on horse trade worldwide. Although several studies on EP prevalence from central Italy have been published, data on ticks responsible for its transmission are still lacking. In this study, we identified a potential competent vector, investigating main features of its ecology together with EP infection rates. A two-year sampling of questing ticks was carried out for the first time in Italy in an area known fo...
El-Hage CM, Bamford NJ, Gilkerson JR, Lynch SE.Ross River virus (RRV) is a mosquito-borne arbovirus of the genus Alphavirus that causes disease in humans and horses in Australia. A temporal association of RRV infection in horses with clinical signs including pyrexia, malaise, and polyarthralgia has been reported, along with reduced athletic performance, often for extended periods. Despite these reports, disease due to RRV remains somewhat controversial as experimental infection of horses has resulted in obvious viraemia yet minimal signs of clinical disease. The relatively high viraemia demonstrated by horses infected with RRV has led to s...
Song R, Ma Y, Hu Z, Li Y, Li M, Wu L, Li C, Dao E, Fan X, Hao Y, Bayin C.Dermacentor marginatus Sulkzer is a common tick species found in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China, and is a vector for a variety of pathogens. To determine the potential distribution of this tick species in Xinjiang, a metadata containing 84 D. marginatus presence records combined with four localities from field collection were used for MaxEnt modeling to predict potential distribution of this tick species. Identification of tick samples showed 756 of 988 (76%) were D. marginatus. MaxEnt modeling results indicated that the potential distribution of this tick species was mai...
Vasilieva NA, Tchabovsky AV.Fitness consequences of early-life conditions remain unclear and poorly studied in mammals. Based on long-term observations of yellow ground squirrels (Spermophilus fulvus), we identified early determinants of female fitness by analyzing the effects of early-life individual and environmental characteristics (weaning weight, weight gain rate, date of natal emergence, natal litter size, location of the natal burrow, local density of juveniles, population density and precipitation in the post-weaning period) on lifetime reproductive success (LRS). We found high variation and right-skewed distribu...
Sofizadeh A, Telmadarraiy Z, Rahnama A, Gorganli-Davaji A, Hosseini-Chegeni A.A survey on tick species composition was carried out in Golestan Province Iran during year 2010-2011.The aim was to determine tick species parasitizing domestic ruminants and their seasonal population dynamics. Methods: A total of 124 sheep, 92 goats, 84 cattle, 74 camels and 12 horses in several villages were inspected for tick infestation. The collected ticks preserved in 70% alcohol and then were identified. Results: The overall 1059 ticks (453 female, 606 male) were collected. The ticks occur on sheep, goats, cattle, camels and horses as 72.1%, 77.3%, 75.8%, 69.3%, and 50% respectively. Th...
Fritz CL, Kjemtrup AM.Despite more than 25 years' experience with Lyme borreliosis, much remains to be learned about this complex zoonosis. Practicing veterinarians, particularly those in the northeastern and upper midwestern states, where Lyme borreliosis is highly endemic, should be familiar with the ecologic features and typical clinical signs of Lyme borreliosis. Interpretation of signs and serologic test results should be made with consideration of the regional prevalence of Lyme borreliosis and the animal's opportunity for exposure to infected Ixodes spp. The availability of recently marketed topical acaracid...
Barros AT, Foil LD.Two studies evaluated the potential use of spatial barriers to reduce the mechanical transmission of disease agents by tabanids in the Pantanal region of Brazil. Tabanids at stations separated by four different distances (5, 10, 25, and 50m) were marked. In the first study, tabanids were marked and allowed to feed until engorgement or natural interruption occurred and captured if they transferred to the other horse. A total of 2847 tabanids belonging to nine different species were marked. The percentage of tabanids that moved between horses was 10.5 at 5m, 6.8 at 10m, and 4.6 at 25m. In the se...
Assefa A, Tibebu A, Bihon A, Dagnachew A, Muktar Y.African horse sickness is a vector-borne, non-contagious and highly infectious disease of equines caused by African horse sickness viruses (AHSv) that mainly affect horses. The occurrence of the disease causes huge economic impacts because of its high fatality rate, trade ban and disease control costs. In the planning of vectors and vector-borne diseases like AHS, the application of Ecological niche models (ENM) used an enormous contribution in precisely delineating the suitable habitats of the vector. We developed an ENM to delineate the global suitability of AHSv based on retrospective out...
Stallones L, McManus P, McGreevy P.As society debates the use of animals in sport, entertainment, and leisure, there is an increasing focus on the welfare, social, and ecological impacts of such activities on the animals, human participants, people close to them, and the physical environment. This article introduces the "Enhanced One Welfare Framework" to reveal significant costs and benefits associated with Thoroughbred breeding and racing globally. In addition, relative to calls to ban horseracing and similar activities as part of sustainability approaches that focus chiefly on animals, the "Enhanced One Welfare Framework" is...
Fraser MD, Vallin HE, Roberts BP.Grasslands dominate land cover nationally and globally, and their composition, structure and habitat value are strongly influenced by the actions of domestic and wild grazing animals that feed on them. Different pastures are characterised by varying opportunities for selective feeding by livestock; agronomically improved, sown swards generally consist of a limited range of plant species whereas longer-term leys and semi-natural grasslands are characterised by a more diverse mixture of plants. In the case of botanically diverse permanent pastures/grazing lands, the dietary preferences of differ...
Barros AT.Once a month, from June 1992 to May 1993, collections of tabanids on horse were conducted in the Nhecolândia, Pantanal State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Tabanid catches using hand nets were conducted from sunrise to sunset at grassland and cerradão (dense savanna) habitats. A total of 3,442 tabanids from 21 species,12 genera, and 3 subfamilies were collected. Although species abundance varied seasonally depending on habitat, no habitat specificity was observed for the most abundant species. In the grassland, 1,625 (47.2%) tabanids belonging to 19 species were collected, while 1,817 (52.8%...
Boukraa S, de La Grandiere MA, Bawin T, Raharimalala FN, Zimmer JY, Haubruge E, Thiry E, Francis F.Emergence of West Nile Virus was recently recorded in several European countries, which can lead to severe health problems in horse populations. Europe is also at risk of introduction of mosquito-borne equine alphavirus from Americas. Prevention of these arboviruses requires a clear understanding of transmission cycles, especially their vectors. To characterize mosquito fauna, their ecology and identify potential vectors of equine arboviruses in Belgium, entomological surveys of six equestrian farms located in the Wolloon Region were conducted during 2011-2012. The harvest of mosquitoes was ba...
den Boon S, Schellekens JF, Schouls LM, Suijkerbuijk AW, Docters van Leeuwen B, van Pelt W.To obtain detailed information about the current geographical distribution and incidence of tick bites and Lyme borreliosis in the Netherlands and to identify regional differences in the ecological risk factors that might be involved. Methods: Retrospective questionnaire study. Methods: All Dutch general practitioner's (GP) practices. Methods: In April 2002, all GPs in the Netherlands were asked to complete a short questionnaire on the number of cases of tick bites and erythema migrans seen in 2001 and the size of their practice. Associations with possible risk factors were determined at the m...
Boisseau M, Dhorne-Pollet S, Bars-Cortina D, Courtot É, Serreau D, Annonay G, Lluch J, Gesbert A, Reigner F, Sallé G, Mach N.The nature and strength of interactions entertained among helminths and their host gut microbiota remain largely unexplored. Using 40 naturally infected Welsh ponies, we tracked the gut microbiota-cyathostomin temporal dynamics and stability before and following anthelmintic treatment and the associated host blood transcriptomic response. High shedders harbored 14 species of cyathostomins, dominated by . They exhibited a highly diverse and temporal dynamic gut microbiota, with butyrate-producing Clostridia likely driving the ecosystem steadiness and host tolerance toward cyathostomins infectio...
Song R, Ma Y, Hu Z, Li Y, Li M, Wu L, Li C, Dao E, Fan X, Hao Y, Bayin C.Dermacentor marginatus Sulkzer is a common tick species found in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China, and is a vector for a variety of pathogens. To determine the potential distribution of this tick species in Xinjiang, a metadata containing 84 D. marginatus presence records combined with four localities from field collection were used for MaxEnt modeling to predict potential distribution of this tick species. Identification of tick samples showed 756 of 988 (76%) were D. marginatus. MaxEnt modeling results indicated that the potential distribution of this tick species was mai...
Hudson AR, McGregor BL, Shults P, England M, Silbernagel C, Mayo C, Carpenter M, Sherman TJ, Cohnstaedt LW.Orbiviruses are of significant importance to the health of wildlife and domestic animals worldwide; the major orbiviruses transmitted by multiple biting midge (Culicoides) species include bluetongue virus, epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus, and African horse sickness virus. The viruses, insect vectors, and hosts are anticipated to be impacted by global climate change, altering established Orbivirus epidemiology. Changes in global climate have the potential to alter the vector competence and extrinsic incubation period of certain biting midge species, affect local and long-distance dispersal ...
Boyce P, Bhattacharyya J, Linklater W.Conservation issues are often complicated by sociopolitical controversies that reflect competing philosophies and values regarding natural systems, animals, and people. Effective conservation outcomes require managers to engage myriad influences (social, cultural, political, and economic, as well as ecological). The contribution of conservation scientists who generate the information on which solutions rely is constrained if they are unable to acknowledge how personal values and disciplinary paradigms influence their research and conclusions. Conservation challenges involving controversial spe...
Harvey AM, Morton JM, Mellor DJ, Russell V, Chapple RS, Ramp D.We previously developed a Ten-Stage Protocol for scientifically assessing the welfare of individual free-roaming wild animals using the Five Domains Model. The protocol includes developing methods for measuring or observing welfare indices. In this study, we assessed the use of remote camera traps to evaluate an extensive range of welfare indicators in individual free-roaming wild horses. Still images and videos were collected and analysed to assess whether horses could be detected and identified individually, which welfare indicators could be reliably evaluated, and whether behaviour could be...
Devenport JA, Patterson MR, Devenport LD.The variability of most environments taxes foraging decisions by increasing the uncertainty of the information available. One solution to the problem is to use dynamic averaging, as do some granivores and carnivores. Arguably, the same strategy could be useful for grazing herbivores, even though their food renews and is more homogeneously distributed. Horses (Equus callabus) were given choices between variable patches after short or long delays. When patch information was current, horses returned to the patch that was recently best, whereas those without current information matched choices to ...
Martin GA, Yanez-Arenas C, Roberts BJ, Chen C, Plowright RK, Webb RJ, Skerratt LF.Hendra virus is a paramyxovirus of Australian flying fox bats. It was first detected in August 1994, after the death of 20 horses and one human. Since then it has occurred regularly within a portion of the geographical distribution of all Australian flying fox (fruit bat) species. There is, however, little understanding about which species are most likely responsible for spillover, or why spillover does not occur in other areas occupied by reservoir and spillover hosts. Using ecological niche models of the four flying fox species we were able to identify which species are most likely linked to...
Kaczensky P, Burnik Šturm M, Sablin MV, Voigt CC, Smith S, Ganbaatar O, Balint B, Walzer C, Spasskaya NN.The Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii), the only remaining wild horse within the equid family, is one of only a handful of species worldwide that went extinct in the wild, was saved by captive breeding, and has been successfully returned to the wild. However, concerns remain that after multiple generations in captivity the ecology of the Przewalski's horse and / or the ecological conditions in its former range have changed in a way compromising the species' long term survival. We analyzed stable isotope chronologies from tail hair of pre-extinction and reintroduced Przewalski's horse...
Deluca TH, Patterson Iv WA , Freimund WA, Cole DN./ Various types of recreational traffic impact hiking trails uniquely and cause different levels of trail degradation; however, trail head restrictions are applied similarly across all types of packstock. The purpose of this study was to assess the relative physical impact of hikers, llamas, and horses on recreational trails. Horse, llama, and hiker traffic were applied to 56 separate plots on an existing trail at Lubrecht Experimental Forest in western Montana. The traffic was applied to plots at intensities of 250 and 1000 passes along with a no-traffic control under both prewetted and dry t...
Espunyes J, Lurgi M, Büntgen U, Bartolomé J, Calleja JA, Gálvez-Cerón A, Peñuelas J, Claramunt-López B, Serrano E.Changes in land-use and climate affect the distribution and diversity of plant and animal species at different spatiotemporal scales. The extent to which species-specific phenotypic plasticity and biotic interactions mediate organismal adaptation to changing environments, however, remains poorly understood. Woody plant expansion is threatening the extent of alpine grasslands worldwide, and evaluating and predicting its effects on herbivores is of crucial importance. Here, we explore the impact of shrubification on the feeding efficiency of Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra p. pyrenaica), as well as ...
McHorse BK, Biewener AA, Pierce SE.Horses are a classic example of macroevolution in three major traits-large body size, tall-crowned teeth (hypsodonty), and a single toe (monodactyly)-but how and why monodactyly evolved is still poorly understood. Existing hypotheses usually connect digit reduction in horses to the spread and eventual dominance of open-habitat grasslands, which took over from forests during the Cenozoic; digit reduction has been argued to be an adaptation for speed, locomotor economy, stability, and/or increased body size. In this review, we assess the evidence for these (not necessarily mutually exclusive) hy...
Bourjade M, de Boyer des Roches A, Hausberger M.Adults play an important role in regulating the social behaviour of young individuals. However, a few pioneer studies suggest that, more than the mere presence of adults, their proportions in social groups affect the social development of young. Here, we hypothesized that aggression rates and social cohesion were correlated to adult-young ratios. Our biological model was naturally-formed groups of Przewalski horses, Equus f. przewalskii, varying in composition. Results: We investigated the social interactions and spatial relationships of 12 one- and two-year-old Przewalski horses belonging to ...
Sudia WD, Fernandez L, Newhouse VF, Sanz R, Calisher CH.Virus vector studies were conducted in the States of Durango, Chihuahua, and Tamaulipas, Mexico, in June and July 1972. Apparently only a low level of Venzuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) virus transmission to equines occured at the time of the study, and the infection was restricted to areas which had not experienced overt activity during the preceding year. The low level of infection was associated with a scarcity of mosquitoes. The IB (epidemic) strain of VEE virus was isolated from two pools of Anopheles pseudopunctipennis (Theo.) and the blood of one symptomatic equine. The low mosquito po...
Nasci RS, Berry RL, Restifo RA, Parsons MA, Smith GC, Martin DA.During August and September of 1991, an epizootic of eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus in horses occurred in Wayne and Holmes countries, OH. This was the first recorded epizootic of EEE virus in the state. Twelve horses were confirmed positive for EEE virus through virus isolation or seroconversion, and seven additional horses with compatible symptoms were in close spatial and temporal proximity to the confirmed cases and were presumed to have died from EEE virus. The outbreak was centered around the Killbuck Wildlife Area, a 2,147-ha tract maintained by the state, half of which consists...
Li X, Buzzard P, Chen Y, Jiang X.Alleviating human-carnivore conflict is central to large carnivore conservation and is often of economic importance, where people coexist with carnivores. In this article, we report on the patterns of predation and economic losses from wild carnivores preying on livestock in three villages of northern Baima Xueshan Nature Reserve, northwest Yunnan during a 2-year period between January 2010 and December 2011. We analyzed claims from 149 households that 258 head of livestock were predated. Wolves (Canis lupus) were responsible for 79.1 % of livestock predation; Asiatic black bears (Selenarctos ...
Fall M, Fall AG, Seck MT, Bouyer J, Diarra M, Balenghien T, Garros C, Bakhoum MT, Faye O, Baldet T, Gimonneau G.Culicoides biting midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) are important vectors of arboviruses in Africa. Culicoides oxystoma has been recently recorded in the Niayes region of Senegal (West Africa) and its high abundance on horses suggests a potential implication in the transmission of the African horse sickness virus in this region. This species is also suspected to transmit bluetongue virus to imported breeds of sheep. Little information is available on the biology and ecology of Culicoides in Africa. Therefore, understanding the circadian host-seeking activity of this putative vector is of prima...
Rudman R, Keiper RR.The summer body condition of 47 adult feral ponies on Assateague Island (off the coast of Maryland, USA) was assessed in June 1988 using a visual body condition scoring system. Winter body condition for 36 of the ponies was assessed in February and March, 1989. The ponies were categorised by gender, reproductive status and location on the island, and body condition scores of the ponies in each category were then compared by statistical analyses. No significant seasonal differences were found in the body conditions of the ponies. However, body condition of stallions was better than that of mare...
Shepard JJ, Andreadis TG, Thomas MC, Molaei G.Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) is a highly pathogenic mosquito-borne arbovirus, with active transmission foci in freshwater hardwood swamps in eastern North America, where enzootic transmission is maintained between the ornithophilic mosquito, Culiseta melanura, and wild passerine birds. The role of other locally abundant mosquito species in virus transmission and their associations with vertebrate hosts as sources of blood meals within these foci are largely unknown but are of importance in clarifying the dynamics of enzootic and epidemic/epizootic transmission. Blood-engorged mosqu...
Hussain N, Shabbir RMK, Ahmed H, Afzal MS, Ullah S, Ali A, Irum S, Naqvi SK, Yin J, Cao J.Ticks are ectoparasites that act as vectors for transmission of various pathogens to wild and domesticated animals and pose a serious threat to human health. Because of the hot and humid conditions in different agro-ecological zones of Pakistan, ticks are abundant and parasitize a variety of animals. The aim of this study was to identify different tick species and distribution on different hosts especially livestock, such as sheep, goat, cattle, buffalo, and camel, and livestock associated canines and equines, such as horse, donkey, and dog, across different agro-ecological zones of Pakistan. ...
Hayes CG, Wallis RC.Western equine encephalomyelitis (WEE) has been recognized as a serious public health problem in western North America for more than 30 years. WEE appears to exist endemically in numerous foci in that region, with a low incidence rate among humans. Severe outbreaks, however, have occurred periodically. For example, during 1941 a severe epidemic involving more than 3000 cases in humans occurred in North Dakota, Minnesota, and in the adjacent areas of Canada. The case fatality rate ranged from 8% to 15%. Epizootics among horses are more common. More than 600 cases of WEE were diagnosed among hor...
