AUTUMN 2019 EqUUS 498^35
three minutes after she left but fell
twice and made no further attempts
to follow. The researchers estimate he
died about an hour later.
Although conceding that it was
difficult to watch these events unfold,
Mendonça says researchers must try
to avoid interfering with animals in
the wild. “It is always hard for us to
see our subjects of research get in-
jured or die,” she says, “and our first
instinct is to call for help or try to in-
tervene. However, when we are deal-
ing with natural causes, as in this
case, we try as much as possible not
to intervene. We have to think about
the complex environmental and tro-
phic interactions that are occurring
and can benefit from such a loss. A
carcass is a food resource for other
animals, scavengers, which depend
on them to survive and to feed their
offspring (which were born in the
same season), such as wolves, foxes,
crows and wild boars.”
Mendonça says that the dam leav-
ing her foal may seem heartbreaking,
but it makes sense in evolutionary
context. “Ensuring her own survival
seems to be a priority for the mothers
in the animal kingdom, in general,
even if the mother-infant bond is the
strongest bond established among
individuals. While a mother can pro-
duce offspring every year (in the case
of horses), developing, growing and
reaching sexual maturity requires
a lot of time and has a lot of costs,
so, for the benefit of the species, it is
more advantageous, and less costly,
if mothers prioritized their surviv-
al over their offspring’s,” she says,
adding, “The constant harassment
by the two bachelor males could have
hastened the abandonment of the
foal. The situation might have been
different if she had been alone with
her foal.”
More difficult to understand, says
Mendonça, was the attention the two
unfamiliar adult mares gave the dy-
ing foal. “I was surprised by the reac-
tion of the unrelated females toward
the injured foal,” she says. “Usually
adult mares and stallions behave
agonistically toward foals from oth-
er groups. These agonistic interac-
tions (e.g., chasing and bite threats)
are observed when foals get lost
from their band and approach other
groups while seeking their own or
when foals are lying down far away
from their group and other groups
approach. Showing affiliative behav-
iors, instead of agonistic as expect-
ed considering previous scenarios,
could mean that the horses somehow
perceived that the foal’s condition
was unusual.”
As for the broader question of how
horses perceive death, much more re-
mains to be learned, but in the mean-
time it’s advisable to take equine
emotions and reactions into account
when managing domesticated horses.
“Some studies suggest that [af-
ter the death of a herdmate], horses
show signs of anxiety, cessation
of feeding and social withdrawal,”
Mendonça says. “Therefore, it is im-
portant to consider horses’ needs
when they are facing a situation of
loss before asking them to complete
or perform their daily tasks.”Reference: “Feral horses’ (Equus ferus caballus) behavior toward dying and dead
conspecifics,” Primates, April 2019
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