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GENDER
It goes without saying
that the males and females of a species perform certain behaviours
to attract a mate and to ensure the survival of their genes.
However, even out of the mating season, the behaviour of any animal
is affected by its gender.
So, just as male dogs cock
their legs while bitches tend to squat, so stallions and mares have
different behavioural responses to the same stimulus. For example,
when a stallion comes across a pile of manure he will go through a
process of sniffing and maybe pawing but then will move over the
pile before he himself defaecates or urinates. A mare may sniff at
the dung, but if she leaves any message it will tend to be
delivered
in the spot where she is standing. This has interesting
repercussions for pasture management. Because stallions create
latrine areas that are so much more discrete than those of mares,
they are more efficient at conservative grazing.
Other examples of the
influence of gender on behaviour include greeting and vocalisation.
The elevated prance of stallions and to a lesser extent geldings,
when they encounter strange horses, has its origins in the
ritualised displays used before mating. Equally, the trumpeting and
grunting of a courting stallion are as gender-specific as the
nickering of a nursing mare. The behaviour of a mare in spring and
summer, far more than that of a stallion, is influenced by the
changing levels of reproductive hormones in her body. Her
responsiveness to stimuli and even her general mood are subject to
cyclical flux, and this, along with the fact that most competition
occurs at this time of year, helps to explain the preference we have
for competing with male horses rather than females. |
