Kiss and Make Up..Like the Animals
I’m Susan Allen welcome to Open Range you know I’ve had people tell me animals don’t have souls, well that just means they’ve never owned a border collie, in fact a while back National Geographic featured an piece on animal intelligence and described border collies as equal or smarter than a human toddler maybe even a preschooler. No surprise to those of us who own, or rather are "owned", by these amazing canines but other creatures are also able to show compassion and concern, I’ll tell you about new research on ranch animal behavior after a quick break. While we can debate until we’re blue in the face if animals actually have souls, a new study from France concluded that in fact horses will support each other after a squabble or conflict and act to provide comfort to a herd mate that has been bullied. Even more fascinating is that over sixty percent of the time the picked on horse is visited within ten minutes by another pasture mate not involved in the conflict. This one researchers dubbed the “peacemaker” comes to comfort and encourage reconciliation. What’s the point of this study? People owning multiple horses know some equines are prone to creating conflict, often to the point of seriously maiming their pasture mates so understanding herd dynamics helps owners know when to separate horses and when not to over react. Like people, dogs, dolphins, and elephants you can choose to believe it or not but research has proved horses do kiss and make up.
