Equus caballushorse

Ge­o­graphic Range

Due to the do­mes­ti­ca­tion of Equus ca­bal­lus, and its wide­spread dis­tri­b­u­tion fol­low­ing do­mes­ti­ca­tion, the nat­ural ge­o­graphic range is typ­i­cally con­sid­ered the dis­tri­b­u­tion in the Late Glacial pe­riod, 9,500-15,000 years ago. Dur­ing this time, horses were wide­spread. Wild horse pop­u­la­tions ex­isted in the north­ern tip of Africa ad­ja­cent to the Tyrrhen­ian and Mediter­ranean Seas, across Eu­rope ex­clud­ing the most north­ern re­gions where the Scan­di­na­vian coun­tries cur­rently exist, and as far east in the Palearc­tic re­gion as China and Mon­go­lia. They ex­tended through­out the north­ern Palearc­tic, across Beringia into the Yukon, and as far south in North Amer­ica as Mex­ico, as far east as the Mis­sis­sippi River, and as far west as the Pa­cific Ocean coast­line. It is be­lieved that the wild horses in North Amer­ica went ex­tinct 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. Do­mes­tic horses were then in­tro­duced into North Amer­ica upon Eu­ro­pean col­o­niza­tion. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999)

Habi­tat

Horses are adapt­able and oc­cupy a wide va­ri­ety of habi­tats under do­mes­ti­ca­tion. Pre­ferred habi­tats are cool, tem­per­ate grass­lands, steppes, and sa­van­nahs, but they also oc­cupy semi-deserts, swamps, marshes, and wood­lands. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999)

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Horses are un­gu­lates with an un­guligrade foot pos­ture, sin­gle-digit oval-shaped hooves, long tails, short hair, long slen­der legs, mus­cu­lar and deep torso build, long thick necks, and large elon­gated heads. The mane is a re­gion of coarse hairs, which ex­tends along the dor­sal side of the neck in both do­mes­tic and wild species. How­ever, wild horses have a mane with short hairs that re­main up­right while do­mes­tic horses have longer mane hairs that do not re­main up­right. A mid-dor­sal stripe, a dark stripe that ex­tends from the mane to the tail, is some­times pre­sent, es­pe­cially in wild types. The teeth are spe­cial­ized for graz­ing, with hyp­sodont cheek­teeth. The den­tal for­mula is 3/3, 0-1/0-1, 3-4/3-4, and 3/3. New­born horses have curly hairs and a finer mane than adults be­fore molt­ing and grow­ing their win­ter coat. Win­ter coats start de­vel­op­ing in Sep­tem­ber and Oc­to­ber, are fully grown by De­cem­ber. They start shed­ding in the sum­mer over a pe­riod of 56 days for adults or 75 days for new­borns. Win­ter coats are typ­i­cally thicker and the top of the tail usu­ally de­vel­ops a re­gion of short hairs, form­ing a tuft. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; Hansen, 1976)

Do­mes­ti­ca­tion of horses has led to wide vari­a­tion in the char­ac­ter­is­tics of breeds of horses. Coats vary in color, from white to black and in­clud­ing reds, browns, and yel­lows, as well as a wide va­ri­ety of pat­terns, such as spots and pinto pat­terns. Size can vary de­pend­ing on the breed and its in­tended use, but can range from 227 to 900 kg in mass and 0.9 to 1.7 me­ters in height, with po­ten­tial out­liers. Leg length, head length, body-build, fur color, me­tab­o­lism, etc, varies across breeds of do­mes­tic horses. De­spite the great vari­a­tion in phys­i­cal fea­tures within horses, they can gen­er­ally be dis­tin­guished from other equids, by hav­ing longer manes and tails and gen­er­ally a lack of ze­bra-type stripes. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; En­s­minger, 1969)

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • sexes alike
  • Range mass
    227 to 900 kg
    500.00 to 1982.38 lb
  • Range length
    220 to 280 cm
    86.61 to 110.24 in
  • Average basal metabolic rate
    0.11 cm3.O2/g/hr

Re­pro­duc­tion

The horse mat­ing sys­tem is sim­i­lar to that of other equids, which is a polyg­y­nous mat­ing sys­tem. Males typ­i­cally herd fe­males dur­ing the mat­ing sea­son and de­fend them against other males, who may be try­ing to mate with the fe­males. Males do not typ­i­cally herd and mate with any of his daugh­ters or any fe­males that grew up with him in the same herd. Males fight with other males through kick­ing and bit­ing, losers sub­mit and re­treat. This process is very en­ergy in­ten­sive and sim­i­lar to the rut seen in deer species. Hi­er­ar­chy in herds is in­flu­ences by re­pro­duc­tive sta­tus and age, with fe­males and their new­born young get­ting first ac­cess to re­sources, fol­lowed by ju­ve­niles and non-re­pro­duc­tive fe­males. Alpha males dom­i­nate ac­cess to re­sources. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; Lin­klater, et al., 1999)

Males can re­pro­duce year-round but are most ac­tive from April to June. Fe­males are polye­strous dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son and go into an es­trous pe­riod on av­er­age every 21 days, each last­ing an av­er­age of 6.5 days. Fe­males have spon­ta­neous ovu­la­tion one to two days be­fore the es­trous pe­riod is over, which is when they are most fer­tile. In au­tumn, fe­males no longer go through es­trous pe­ri­ods until near­ing the next breed­ing sea­son. Av­er­age ges­ta­tion pe­riod is 335 days, but ranges from 287 to 419 days. This broad ges­ta­tion range means that birth can be in ei­ther spring or au­tumn of the next year. If the foal is not born by the time in which the mare would go into es­trous dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, then she can­not par­tic­i­pate that year. Usu­ally only one foal is pro­duced an­nu­ally, and it is rare to see twin foals. In do­mes­tic horses, only 14% of twin foals sur­vive two weeks, and ei­ther one or both twins are born un­der­de­vel­oped. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; En­s­minger, 1969)

Births occur at night and in a quiet lo­ca­tion. Wild horse foals are usu­ally born at a mass of 25 to 30 kg, but the av­er­age birth weight of do­mes­ti­cated foals is 40 kg. Foals are born pre­co­cial and well-de­vel­oped, usu­ally being able to stand within an hour of birth and walk within four to five hours to fol­low their mother. When the mother re­turns to the herd, she goes through post­par­tum es­trus for usu­ally seven to nine days, which is sig­nif­i­cantly less than reg­u­lar es­trus pe­ri­ods. In do­mes­ti­cated horses who do not have a herd, post­par­tum es­trus usu­ally hap­pens five to twelve days after giv­ing birth. Foals are able to eat solid food within a week of being born. For their first month, the young stay close to their mother and nurse for brief and fre­quent pe­ri­ods be­fore their sec­ond month, when they start to for­age on their own. When they start to for­age in­de­pen­dently, they begin the wean­ing process which could take up to two years for wild foals. In do­mes­ti­cated horses, foals are often weaned be­tween four and six months old. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; En­s­minger, 1969)

Foal weight dou­bles every week for four weeks, then grad­u­ally de­clines as they reach ma­tu­rity. It takes fe­males four to five years, and males six to seven years, to reach full re­pro­duc­tive ma­tu­rity. Al­though fe­males first go into es­trus at ei­ther 11 or 12 months, they are not usu­ally fer­tile until their sec­ond year. Even then, fe­males have dif­fi­culty de­vel­op­ing the fetus of a foal and giv­ing birth, with­out se­vere health com­pli­ca­tions to her­self or the foal, until they are four years of age. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; En­s­minger, 1969)

  • Breeding interval
    Horses may breed up to once each year.
  • Breeding season
    Horses generally breed from April to June.
  • Range number of offspring
    1 to 2
  • Average number of offspring
    1
    AnAge
  • Range gestation period
    287 to 419 days
  • Average gestation period
    335 days
  • Range weaning age
    24 (high) months
  • Range time to independence
    2 to 3 years
  • Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    11 to 48 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    36 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    6 years
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    Sex: male
    973 days
    AnAge

Foals are pre­co­cial at birth and able to walk on their own shortly after birth, but still need parental as­sis­tance. Al­though they are pre­co­cial, they rely heav­ily on their mother for pro­tec­tion against preda­tors and food until they begin to for­age on their own. Being re­cently born, foals get ac­cess to food re­sources sec­ond to the alpha male of the herd. As they ma­ture into ju­ve­niles, they even­tu­ally get ac­cess to food after re­cently born foals, but still be­fore sin­gle and non-re­pro­duc­tive fe­males. Al­though young pri­mar­ily learn by ob­ser­va­tion of their mother in the first cou­ple months, the herd also pro­vides a learn­ing en­vi­ron­ment and pro­tec­tion against preda­tors. Some­times, fe­males will nip their young for dis­ci­pline as well. Herd hi­er­ar­chy is also taught through kick­ing, bit­ing, vo­cal­iza­tion, and fa­cial ges­tures be­tween in­di­vid­u­als for com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Al­though young are pre­co­cial and grow rel­a­tively quickly, they do rely on the pro­tec­tion, group care, and learn­ing ex­pe­ri­ences of­fered by the herd on their mother for de­vel­op­ment in wild horses. Stud­ies show that feral horses are no longer de­pen­dent on their natal herd and tend to dis­perse to other herds in their 2nd or 3rd year of age. Gen­der is not a fac­tor in the age at which hoses dis­perse from their natal herd. Do­mes­ti­cated foals are usu­ally sep­a­rated from their mother ei­ther dur­ing or im­me­di­ately after the wean­ing process is com­plete. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; Cameron, et al., 2003; En­s­minger, 1969)

  • Parental Investment
  • precocial
  • female parental care
  • pre-fertilization
    • provisioning
    • protecting
      • male
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-independence
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • maternal position in the dominance hierarchy affects status of young

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Horse lifes­pan is de­pen­dent on sev­eral fac­tors, in­clud­ing breed vari­a­tions and en­vi­ron­ment. Typ­i­cally, do­mes­tic horses have a lifes­pan of 25 to 30 years, al­though a max­i­mum of 61 years has been at­tained. The longest liv­ing horse in wild as of 1974 was 36 years. Fac­tors on lifes­pan of E. ca­bal­lus in­clude: nu­tri­tion, ac­tiv­ity, num­ber of re­pro­duc­tion cy­cles, re­pro­duc­tive sta­tus, dis­ease, den­tal health, and phys­i­cal ac­tiv­ity. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; En­s­minger, 1969)

Be­hav­ior

Horses are so­cial mam­mals. In wild or feral pop­u­la­tions they form herds with a so­cial hi­er­ar­chy. These herds, also known as bands, can have up to 26 mares, 5 stal­lions, and var­i­ous ages of pre-dis­persed young. Typ­i­cal herd sizes will have only 5 to 11 mares and 1 to 4 stal­lions, in ad­di­tion to their off­spring, but these num­bers vary among schol­arly ar­ti­cles and may vary with food avail­abil­ity, en­vi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions, and other fac­tors. This hi­er­ar­chy is com­prised of the alpha male being dom­i­nant over the herd, males dom­i­nant over fe­males, fe­males with young dom­i­nant over non-re­pro­duc­tive fe­males, and adults being dom­i­nant over ju­ve­niles. The dom­i­nant or alpha male is sig­nif­i­cantly more ac­tive than other mem­bers of the herd. Stud­ies show that, in feral horses, where reg­u­lar mem­bers of the herd usu­ally spend less than 10% of their time mov­ing around, dom­i­nant males move from 25 to 45% of the time and sleep only 5 to 6% of their time, when the other herd mem­bers usu­ally spend 20 to 27% of the time through­out the day sleep­ing. Alpha males also ex­pend large amounts of en­ergy round­ing up fe­males and de­fend­ing them against other males dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. Alpha males usu­ally move in the back of the herd, but will move to the front in the pres­ence of a threat and sig­nal to the herd in the event that the herd needs to flee. The alpha may also at­tack a threat if nec­es­sary to de­fend the herd. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; En­s­minger, 1969; Lin­klater, et al., 1999)

Horses are cre­pus­cu­lar and have an in­ter­rupted sleep­ing pat­tern that com­pli­ments this. Dur­ing the sum­mer, horses graze in morn­ing or evenings to avoid mid-day high tem­per­a­tures, and can be seen vis­it­ing water sources at night as well. To adapt to this feed­ing pat­tern, they sleep in seg­ments through­out the day, which are usu­ally not more than two hours long. They also avoid lay­ing down for more than an hour at a time if pos­si­ble, and can be seen sleep­ing while stand­ing up. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999)

  • Range territory size
    0.59 to 17.68 km^2

Home Range

Wild horses gen­er­ally stay close to water sources but, in tran­si­tion be­tween spring and sum­mer when food is most abun­dant, horses can travel far from their water ac­cess points. One study in a feral pop­u­la­tion in New Zealand showed that home range sizes were be­tween 0.96 to 17.68 square kilo­me­ters, with a den­sity of 0.48 to 3.22 in­di­vid­u­als per square kilo­me­ter. Herd size and home range are pos­i­tively cor­re­lated, with a larger herd oc­cu­py­ing a larger home range. Some stud­ies on wild or feral horses show that there are sea­sonal move­ments and vari­a­tion in the home range. These sea­sonal move­ments are typ­i­cally as­so­ci­ated with reg­u­lar sea­sonal pre­cip­i­ta­tion changes, food avail­abil­ity, tem­per­a­tures, and topog­ra­phy. In win­ter, pop­u­la­tions move away from lower el­e­va­tions that were ex­posed to un­usu­ally cooler tem­per­a­tures due to frost in­ver­sion lay­ers, but would re­turn prior to foal­ing or the mat­ing sea­son. Win­ter home ranges in feral pop­u­la­tions are larger than sum­mer home ranges on av­er­age, but these ranges vary sig­nif­i­cantly. True wild horse pop­u­la­tion are re­stricted to var­i­ous re­serves and rein­tro­duc­tion sites for their pro­tec­tion. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; Boyd and King, 2014; Lin­klater, et al., 1999; Lin­klater, et al., 2000)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

In horses, the nos­trils, muz­zle, whiskers, and cheeks all have whiskers that are used to per­ceive the en­vi­ron­ment through touch. Vi­sion is the pri­mary means of per­ceiv­ing the en­vi­ron­ment in horses. Ears are long, slen­der, and up­right, which aid in au­di­tory per­cep­tion. Al­though their sense of smell is im­por­tant, it is not the chief means of per­cep­tion and pro­vides a smaller role than vi­sion or the sen­si­tive re­cep­tors on the nos­trils, muz­zle, whiskers, or cheeks. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999)

The pri­mary means of com­mu­ni­cat­ing with other horses is through vo­cal­iza­tions and ges­tures, par­tic­u­larly fa­cial ges­tures. Dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, males may grunt or scream at one an­other, in ad­di­tion to stomp­ing and paw­ing at the ground in an ag­gres­sive man­ner. Males may neigh to fe­males in es­trous and fe­males may squeal and kick if they are re­fus­ing a rut­ting male. Grunt­ing and ag­gres­sive ges­tures, in­clud­ing bit­ing, shov­ing, and kick­ing, may occur among herd mem­bers to es­tab­lish or re­in­force the hi­er­ar­chy struc­ture and ex­press dom­i­nance. Sub­mis­sive in­di­vid­u­als will let the win­ner lay their head on the loser’s back-end, which is seen in equids. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999)

In ad­di­tion to body ges­tures, horses have an array of fa­cial ges­tures. Pos­i­tive re­ac­tions in­clude rais­ing of the lips to ex­pose upper teeth, sim­i­lar to a smile, and head bob­bing or point­ing the ears for­ward and erect. Ag­gres­sive fa­cial ges­tures in­clude the ears being laid back and the nos­trils closed while ex­pos­ing the same teeth. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999)

Food Habits

Pri­mar­ily fo­li­vores by na­ture, horses pri­mar­ily graze on true grasses. Do­mes­tic horses are often fed var­i­ous amounts of grains, in­clud­ing oats, bar­ley, corn, wheat, flax, soy­beans, al­falfa, clover, Tim­o­thy hay, and John­son grass. In ad­di­tion to this diet, they may also be pro­vided vi­t­a­min and min­eral sup­ple­ments. Feral horses eat a sim­i­lar diet, in­clud­ing Russ­ian this­tle, dropseed grasses, mesquite, prairie june­grass, green spran­gle­top, and salt­bush, and likely varies de­pend­ing on lo­ca­tion and sea­son. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; En­s­minger, 1969; Hansen, 1976)

  • Plant Foods
  • leaves
  • wood, bark, or stems
  • seeds, grains, and nuts

Pre­da­tion

Nat­ural preda­tors of wild horses are likely to have been mainly wolves, coy­otes, and moun­tains lions. Preda­tors mainly prey on el­derly, ill, or young an­i­mals. When a herd is threat­ened by a preda­tor, the alpha male may at­tack it through bit­ing and kick­ing with the hooves. Fe­males pro­tect their young in a sim­i­lar man­ner. Hu­mans are also preda­tors of horses, both his­tor­i­cally and cur­rently. Wild pop­u­la­tions were prob­a­bly hunted by hu­mans and horse meat is con­sumed in some places. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999)

Ecosys­tem Roles

The do­mes­ti­ca­tion of horses con­tributed to the de­vel­op­ment of agri­cul­tural so­ci­eties and changed the mo­bil­ity and po­lit­i­cal re­la­tion­ships be­tween dif­fer­ent human pop­u­la­tions. As graz­ing an­i­mals, horses in­flu­ence di­ver­sity and struc­ture of the ecosys­tems in which they live. In some places horses have been im­por­tant in seed dis­per­sal of cer­tain trees. There are over 150 species of par­a­sites doc­u­mented in horses. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; Hardin, 1997)

Mu­tu­al­ist Species

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Horses are eco­nom­i­cally very im­por­tant to hu­mans now and his­tor­i­cally. They have been used as a food source, have been crit­i­cal in the trans­porta­tion of peo­ple and goods, have played im­por­tant roles in mil­i­tary cam­paigns, in sport and recre­ation, and in agri­cul­tural de­vel­op­ment. Horses are also beloved com­pan­ion an­i­mals and widely used in ther­a­peu­tic ap­proaches. In agri­cul­ture, horses are used to pull plows and car­riages and their ma­nure is an im­por­tant fer­til­izer. Horse hairs are used in var­i­ous prod­ucts. (En­s­minger, 1969)

  • Positive Impacts
  • pet trade
  • food
  • body parts are source of valuable material
  • research and education
  • produces fertilizer

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Feral horse pop­u­la­tions may be dis­rup­tive to ecosys­tems that are not adapted to the pres­ence of large equid graz­ers. They can com­pete with other graz­ing an­i­mals for re­sources and cause ex­ces­sive dam­age to na­tive veg­e­ta­tion. Stud­ies show horses suc­cess­fully out­com­pete other graz­ing species. Wild, feral, and do­mes­tic horses can also trans­mit zoonotic dis­eases, which can cause neg­a­tive im­pacts to local an­i­mal species, agri­cul­ture, and peo­ple. ("Pest an­i­mal risk as­sess­ment: Feral horse (Equus ca­bal­lus)", 2009; Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Do­mes­ti­cated horses are abun­dant in many areas around the world. Their clos­est rel­a­tives, Prze­wal­ski's wild horses were listed as en­dan­gered on the IUCN Red List, en­dan­gered under the U.S. En­dan­gered Species Act, and on Ap­pen­dix I of CITES. Some older stud­ies state that do­mes­ti­ca­tion and re­lease of do­mes­tic horses led to this de­cline in Prze­wal­ski's wild horse pop­u­la­tions and they were thought to no longer exist in the wild. Cur­rent con­ser­va­tion ef­forts in Prze­wal­ski's wild horses in­clude legal pro­tec­tion of the species in Mon­go­lia as well as rein­tro­duc­tion ef­forts in sev­eral areas. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; Boyd and King, 2014)

Other Com­ments

It is im­por­tant to note that there have been some tax­o­nomic changes that may af­fect the va­lid­ity of in­for­ma­tion in the older lit­er­a­ture on horses. Many older lit­er­a­ture sources con­sider Prze­wal­ski’s wild horses as the wild sub­species of horses, and refer to it as E. c. prze­wal­skii; how­ever, re­cent sources and the IUCN Red List con­sider Prze­wal­ski's wild horses as Equus ferus prze­wal­skii and sug­gests that E. f. prze­wal­skii is not the an­ces­tor of E. ca­bal­lus due to a dif­fer­ence in chro­mo­some num­bers. It is thought that they de­scended from dif­fer­ent lin­eages, but this tax­o­nomic de­bate is on­go­ing. It is dif­fi­cult to make this clar­i­fi­ca­tion due to the near ex­tinc­tion of the Prze­wal­ski's wild horses, pro­duc­ing a bot­tle­neck in ge­netic di­ver­sity. The cur­rent pop­u­la­tion of Prze­wal­ski's wild horses is de­scended from 13 cap­tive in­di­vid­u­als, one being a do­mes­tic horse and one being a hy­brid be­tween a do­mes­tic horse and a Prze­wal­ski's wild horse. In the mean­time, much older lit­er­a­ture does not dis­tin­guish be­tween wild E. ca­bal­lus and Prze­wal­ski's wild horses. Much in­for­ma­tion avail­able might ac­tu­ally be for both sub­species. (Ben­nett and Hoff­mann, 1999; Boyd and King, 2014; Wall­ner, et al., 2003)

Con­trib­u­tors

Christo­pher Clement (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Alaska Fair­banks, Laura Prugh (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Wash­ing­ton, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Australian

Living in Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, New Guinea and associated islands.

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Ethiopian

living in sub-Saharan Africa (south of 30 degrees north) and Madagascar.

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Nearctic

living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.

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Neotropical

living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.

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Palearctic

living in the northern part of the Old World. In otherwords, Europe and Asia and northern Africa.

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acoustic

uses sound to communicate

agricultural

living in landscapes dominated by human agriculture.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

causes or carries domestic animal disease

either directly causes, or indirectly transmits, a disease to a domestic animal

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

cosmopolitan

having a worldwide distribution. Found on all continents (except maybe Antarctica) and in all biogeographic provinces; or in all the major oceans (Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific.

crepuscular

active at dawn and dusk

dominance hierarchies

ranking system or pecking order among members of a long-term social group, where dominance status affects access to resources or mates

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

female parental care

parental care is carried out by females

folivore

an animal that mainly eats leaves.

food

A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

herbivore

An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.

holarctic

a distribution that more or less circles the Arctic, so occurring in both the Nearctic and Palearctic biogeographic regions.

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Found in northern North America and northern Europe or Asia.

introduced

referring to animal species that have been transported to and established populations in regions outside of their natural range, usually through human action.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

marsh

marshes are wetland areas often dominated by grasses and reeds.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nomadic

generally wanders from place to place, usually within a well-defined range.

oceanic islands

islands that are not part of continental shelf areas, they are not, and have never been, connected to a continental land mass, most typically these are volcanic islands.

oriental

found in the oriental region of the world. In other words, India and southeast Asia.

World Map

pet trade

the business of buying and selling animals for people to keep in their homes as pets.

polar

the regions of the earth that surround the north and south poles, from the north pole to 60 degrees north and from the south pole to 60 degrees south.

polygynous

having more than one female as a mate at one time

riparian

Referring to something living or located adjacent to a waterbody (usually, but not always, a river or stream).

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

swamp

a wetland area that may be permanently or intermittently covered in water, often dominated by woody vegetation.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

tundra

A terrestrial biome with low, shrubby or mat-like vegetation found at extremely high latitudes or elevations, near the limit of plant growth. Soils usually subject to permafrost. Plant diversity is typically low and the growing season is short.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

young precocial

young are relatively well-developed when born

Ref­er­ences

Biose­cu­rity Queens­land. Pest an­i­mal risk as­sess­ment: Feral horse (Equus ca­bal­lus). PR09-4511. Bris­bane: The State of Queens­land, De­part­ment of Em­ploy­ment, Eco­nomic De­vel­op­ment and In­no­va­tion. 2009.

Ben­nett, D., R. Hoff­mann. 1999. Equus ca­bal­lus Lin­naeus, 1758. Mam­malian Species, No. 628: 1-14.

Boyd, L., S. King. 2014. "Equus ferus ssp. prze­wal­skii" (On-line). The IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species. Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 02, 2014 at www.​iucnredlist.​org/​details/​7961/​0.

Cameron, E., W. Lin­klater, K. Stafford, E. Minot. 2003. So­cial group­ing and ma­ter­nal be­hav­iour in feral horses (Equus ca­bal­lus): the in­flu­ence of males on ma­ter­nal pro­tec­tive­ness. Be­hav­ioral Ecol­ogy and So­cio­bi­ol­ogy, 53(2): 92-101.

En­s­minger, M. 1969. Horses and Horse­man­ship. Danville, Illi­nois: The In­ter­state Print­ers & Pub­lish­ers, Inc.

Hansen, R. 1976. Foods of Free-Roam­ing Horses in South­ern New Mex­ico. Jour­nal of Range Man­age­ment, 29(4): 347.

Hardin, D. 1997. "Con­trol­ling In­ter­nal Par­a­sites of Horses" (On-line pdf). Ac­cessed De­cem­ber 09, 2014 at extension.​missouri.​edu/​p/​g2854.

Lin­klater, W., E. Cameron, E. Minot, K. Stafford. 1999. Stal­lion ha­rasse­ment and the mat­ing sys­tem of horses. An­i­mal Be­hav­iour, 58(2): 295-306.

Lin­klater, W., E. Cameron, K. Stafford, C. Velt­man. 2000. So­cial and spa­tial struc­ture and range use by Kaimanawa wild horses (Equus ca­bal­lus: Equidae). New Zealand Jour­nal of Ecol­ogy, 24(2): 139-152.

Wall­ner, B., G. Brem, M. Müller, R. Achmann. 2003. Fixed nu­cleotide dif­fer­ences on the Y chro­mo­some in­di­cate clear di­ver­gence be­tween Equus prze­wal­skii and Equus ca­bal­lus. An­i­mal Ge­net­ics, 34: 453-456.