Case study about the differences on the dominance and leadership between equines and MUARS: influence of age, weight and sex

• Grant number: 18/01987-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2018
• End date: March 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Ecology of Domestic Animals and Ethology
• Principal Investigator: José Nicolau Prospero Puoli Filho
• Grantee: Matheus Henrique Paez Martins Narciso
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

We will evaluate the influence of age, weight and sex on the behavior of dominance and leadership of equines and mules, and if there are differences between the mentioned species and its hybrid. The experiment will take place in the Sector of Equideoculture located in the Education, Research and Extension Area Edgárdia (FEPE), FMVZ - UNESP, Botucatu Campus, SP, Brazil. We will test 22 animals in the experiment, 11 equines and 11 mules, that will be separated in two independent groups (GH and GM, respectively) which will previously be identified by sex, weight and age (dentition method). The specific behaviors indicative of dominance and leadership of the animals will be recorded for 8 h/day for three consecutive days. From the shootings, we will register the frequencies of occurrence of these behaviors by the focal sampling method. If the behavioral frequencies of equines and mules express normal distributions and are homocedastics, the comparisons between them will be made by independent-t test, and if not, they will be conducted by an equivalent nonparametric test. These comparisons will be made independently for males and females to evaluate the influence of sex. Moreover, aiming to evaluate the influence of age and weight on the frequency of the referred behaviors, we will use the Pearson's correlation test, if the data are normally distributed. On the contrary, we will use the corresponding nonparametric test for this analysis. For all these comparisons, we will set ± = 0.05. (AU)