Journal
PRIMATES
Volume 61, Issue 1, Pages 49-54Publisher
SPRINGER JAPAN KK
DOI: 10.1007/s10329-019-00728-x
Keywords
Horse; Death-related behaviors; Thanatology; Awareness of death; Wolf attacks; Injured individual
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Funding
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [JSPS-LGP-U04] Funding Source: Medline
- KAKENHI [17H0582, 15H05309, 15H01619, 18K18342] Funding Source: Medline
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology [16H06283] Funding Source: Medline
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In the rapidly expanding field of comparative thanatology, reports from a wide range of taxa suggest that some aspects of a concept of death may be shared by many non-human species. In horses, there are only a few anecdotal reports on behaviors toward dead conspecifics, mostly concerning domestic individuals. Here, we describe the case of a 2-month-old, free-ranging male foal that died around 12 h after being found severely injured due to a presumed wolf attack, focusing on other individuals' reactions to the dying foal. We also placed camera traps near horse carcasses to investigate reactions by other horses. Kin and non-kin of both sexes showed unusual interest in the dying foal. However, horses appeared to avoid dead conspecifics. Recording individual reactions to dead and dying conspecifics in naturalistic settings will enhance our knowledge about death-related behaviors in horses, allowing comparisons with other species that have been more thoroughly studied, to understand the evolutionary basis of these behaviors.
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