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| The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach: What about horses? | ||
| Auteur(s) : Sankey, C.; Henry, S.; Gorecka-Bruzda, A.; Richard-Yris, M.-A.; Hausberger, M. Contributeurs : EthoS, UMR 6552; CNRS; Université de Rennes 1 Référence bibliographique : PLoS ONE, 2010, 5 (11): e15446 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015446 Type : Article scientifique Éditeur(s) : Public Library of Science Date de publication : 2010 | ||
Description : Background: How do we bond to one another? While in some species, like humans, physical contact plays a role in the process of attachment, it has been suggested that tactile contact’s value may greatly differ according to the species considered. Nevertheless, grooming is often considered as a pleasurable experience for domestic animals, even though scientific data is lacking. On another hand, food seems to be involved in the creation of most relationships in a variety of species. Methodology/Principal Findings: In this study, we used the horse training context to test the effects of food versus grooming during repeated human-horse interactions. The results reveal that food certainly holds a key role in the attachment process, while tactile contact was here clearly insufficient for bonding to occur. Conclusion/Significance: This study raises important questions on the way tactile contact is perceived, and shows that large inter-species differences are to be expected. Mots-clés : attachment, tactile contact, grooming, human-horse interactions |
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