Horses perceive emotions in familiar whinnies
Researchers from the Ethology and Animal Welfare Unit within the Institute of Agricultural Sciences found that horses perceive the emotional expression of familiar but not unfamiliar horses.
In their recent publication, Dr. Elodie Briefer and her colleagues showed that horses react differently to whinnies produced in positive and negative situations by familiar, but not unfamiliar horses, suggesting that past exposure to the vocalisations of a conspecific is necessary to perceive its emotional expression.
Horses can express emotional valence through their whinnies. The resulting difference between positive and negative whinnies is similar to variation in human speech as a function of emotions, and is more subtle than differences between two call types (e.g. cat purr versus meow, or human laughter versus crying).
As the researchers found in their first study in 2015 (see ETH-news from 15 May 2015), horse whinnies are made of two different fundamental frequencies. This particularity allows horses to express both positive and negative emotions, and at the same time convey the strength of these emotions. In their new study, the authors show that horses perceive these subtle acoustic changes linked to emotional valence.
- Ethology and Animal Welfare Unit, Institute of Agricultural Sciences (IAS)
- Perception of emotional valence in horse whinnies in external pageFrontiers of Zoology
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