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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

The Use of Traditional Fear Tests to Evaluate Different Emotional Circuits in Cattle
Published on: April 22, 2020
[Expressive behaviour to assess the emotional states in horses]
1Institut für Tierschutz und Verhalten (Heim-, Labortiere und Pferde), Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover. bohnet@tierschutzzentrum.de
Abstract:
The emotional states such as feelings and emotions are not easy to assess by objective methods in animals as well as in humans. Beside measuring physiological variables an aid to assess the emotional states is the analysis of expressive behaviour of an individual respecting the relating context. Especially developed in mammals, which live in obligatory social i.e. in stable permanent social communities, are facial expression and gesture. Also horses display a differentiated expressive behaviour, which can be observed and analysed by humans. Moreover it could be demonstrated, that in situations of stress the display shown by horses (gesture, facial expression, posture) correlate with corresponding physiological reactions. Thus the expressive behaviour is suitable to assess the emotional states of horses depending on the situation.
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