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Animal cognition2025; 28(1); 23; doi: 10.1007/s10071-025-01946-1

Learning from eavesdropping on human-human encounters changes feeding location choice in horses (Equus Caballus).

Abstract: When animals observe human signals, they may learn from them. Such learning from humans has been reported for intentional communication between humans with animals, but animals might also learn socially by observing unintentional information transfer when eavesdropping on humans-human encounters. In this study, 12 of 17 horses significantly changed their preference for a feeding location after observing approval in a human-human interaction there, and horses kept in social housing adapted in a higher percentage of trials to human-human demonstrations than those in individual housing. This indicates, for the first time, that some animals change their feeding strategies after eavesdropping on human-human demonstrations and that this adaptation may be dependent on social experience. As horses maintained the observed preference for a feeding location when the demonstrators were absent, we suggest that they learned by applying individual and social learning mechanisms. The horses social rank, age and sex did not affect their learning performance. However, particular demonstrators tended to have a stronger impact on the horses' performance. Future research should further investigate the durability of this preference change in the absence of repeated demonstrations, and establish whether long-term social learning sets in. This would have important implications for unintentional long-term impacts of human interactions on interspecies communication.
© 2025. The Author(s).
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Publication Date: 2025-03-17 PubMed ID: 40095148PubMed Central: PMC11913996DOI: 10.1007/s10071-025-01946-1Google Scholar: Lookup
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  • Journal Article

Summary

This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.

The research uncovers that horses can alter their feeding locations after observing interactions between humans at these locations. Social circumstances and the horse’s housing type played a key role in how effectively the horses learnt from observing these human interactions.

The Experiment

  • The researchers designed an experimental setup to examine if and how horses, a species with significant social learning capabilities, might adapt their behavior based on eavesdropping on human-human interactions.
  • In the experiment, a total of 17 horses watched a demonstrator human showing approval at a particular feeding location.
  • The choice of feeding location by these horses post-demonstration was then observed and recorded.

Findings

  • The researchers found that 12 out of the 17 horses significantly changed their preferred feeding location based on observing the human interaction at the spot.
  • It was also noticed that horses that were kept in social housing showed a higher percentage of adaption to the human-human demonstration compared to those in individual housing.
  • Despite factors like social rank, age, and sex, the learning performance of the horses remained unaffected.
  • However, it was observed that particular demonstrators had a stronger impact in shifting the horses’ feeding location preference over others.
  • Horses maintained their newly observed preference for a feeding location even when the human demonstrators were absent, suggesting not just imitation but actual learning.

Implications and Future Research

  • These findings mark a crucial breakthrough, suggesting that some animals, in this case, horses, can change their behavior or routines based on observing human interactions.
  • It is also an indicative measure of the effect of social experience or social housing on an animal’s ability to learn from human demonstrations.
  • The study calls for further research to understand the permanence of this behavioral change in the absence of repeated demonstrations to ascertain if this is an instance of long-term social learning.
  • This understanding can have significant implications for unintentional long-term effects of human interactions on interspecies communication.

Cite This Article

APA
Krueger K, Roll A, Beyer AJ, Föll A, Bernau M, Farmer K. (2025). Learning from eavesdropping on human-human encounters changes feeding location choice in horses (Equus Caballus). Anim Cogn, 28(1), 23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-025-01946-1

Publication

Animal cognition
ISSN: 1435-9456
NlmUniqueID: 9814573
Country: Germany
Language: English
Volume: 28
Issue: 1
Pages: 23

Researcher Affiliations

Krueger, Konstanze
  • Department of Equine Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Economics and Management, Nuertingen-Geislingen University, Neckarsteige 6-10, 72622, Nürtingen, Germany. Konstanze.krueger@hfwu.de.
  • Zoology/Evolutionary Biology, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053, Regensburg, Germany. Konstanze.krueger@hfwu.de.
Roll, Anika
  • Department of Equine Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Economics and Management, Nuertingen-Geislingen University, Neckarsteige 6-10, 72622, Nürtingen, Germany.
Beyer, Anna J
  • Department of Equine Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Economics and Management, Nuertingen-Geislingen University, Neckarsteige 6-10, 72622, Nürtingen, Germany.
Föll, Angela
  • Department of Equine Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Economics and Management, Nuertingen-Geislingen University, Neckarsteige 6-10, 72622, Nürtingen, Germany.
Bernau, Maren
  • Department of Equine Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Economics and Management, Nuertingen-Geislingen University, Neckarsteige 6-10, 72622, Nürtingen, Germany.
Farmer, Kate
  • Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, KY16 9JPh, UK.

MeSH Terms

  • Animals
  • Horses / psychology
  • Male
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Feeding Behavior / psychology
  • Learning
  • Choice Behavior
  • Human-Animal Interaction
  • Social Learning

Conflict of Interest Statement

Declarations. Ethical approval: This study is registered under the numbers: 2021_08_25.07.2021; 2022_19_24.03.22; 2021_27_04.05.2022 at Nuertingen-Geislingen University. Permission was given from the Ethics Board of Nürtingen-Geislingen University, as the claims of the Data Protection Directive of the European Union were fulfilled. The video material, showing the experimental procedure with and without human participation, was transferred into anonymous, written form directly after conducting the material. From the anonymous raw data, no individual data could be assigned to particular persons. Only the written, anonymous raw data was used for further analysis for the study. The methods of the study were visualized in graphs without showing persons. The study published no pictures, videos or any data from which personal data could be drawn, either in the manuscript or in any supplementary material. The participating persons declared written consent (a) for participating in the data curation, (b) for documenting their personal data on video, (c) for transferring the data into written form, and (d) for using the anonymous, written raw data for the present publication. The informed consent and can be viewed at justified requests. Declaration of AI use: We have not used AI-assisted technologies in creating this article. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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Citations

This article has been cited 1 times.
  1. Jim HL, Belfiore K, Martinelli EB, Martínez M, Range F, Marshall-Pescini S. Do dogs form reputations of humans? No effect of age after indirect and direct experience in a food-giving situation. Anim Cogn 2025 Jun 28;28(1):51.
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