Konstanze Krüger

Konstanze Krüger
Born Cologne
Nationality German
Fields Zoology & Agriculture
Institutions Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Science
Alma mater Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and University of Regensburg

Konstanze Krüger (née Konstanze Deubner, born 22 January 1968) is a German zoologist and behaviour researcher. She is Professor of Horse Management at Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Science, and her special field of research is the social system of horses.[1][2][3]

Scientific career

Krüger studied veterinary medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU). After completing her studies in 1996, she accepted a position as scientific assistant at the Institute for Animal Anatomy and Histology at the LMU in Munich.

From April 1999 to February 2006, she ran the Einthal Equestrian Park in Obertraubling, together with her husband. From June 2004, she held a research position at Biology 1 in the department of Zoology at the University of Regensburg, researching social learning and social cognition in horses. In October 2008 she organised the 1st International Equine Science Meeting.[4] On 1 March 2012, she became Germany’s first Professor of Horse Management, taking charge of the department at the Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Science. In March 2012, she organised the 2nd International Equine Science Meeting at the University of Regensburg, sponsored by the DFG.[5] In Okctober 2012, she was promoted to the position of Professor of Zoology at the University of Regensburg.[6]

Research focus

Methods

Practical application of research in equestrian sport and horse management

The behaviour of horses in the Join-Up-Method is a learned response specific to a particular location, and not a natural "language" as claimed by Monty Roberts in his books. The research explains how and why this training can be generalised to other people and places and therefore be an important tool in the training of horses.
This research supports the opinion of many equestrian experts that it is wise to use an experienced horse to demonstrate new exercises to horses in training.[13][14][15] It also reveals that only horses from the same social group are suitable demonstrators.
According to the situation, horses sometimes prefer to observe things with their left eye, and sometimes with the right. For every day training purposes, it is best to allow horses to allow horses to observe a potentially dangerous object with its left eye until it calms down.
This study demonstrates that it is important when keeping horses in groups to ensure that the groups are composed of horses of mixed ages.

Scientific importance of the research

For the last 30 years, horses have been described as being incapable of demonstrating social learning (Baer et al. 1983.;[18] Baker and Crawford 1986;[19] Clarke et al. 1996;[20] Lindberg et al. 1999[21]) because the social complexity of horses was underestimated and the experimental designs were therefore not suitably constructed. In several studies this was taken into account, and for the first time horses did show social learning. This has important implications for other species in which social learning has similarly not been shown. The experimental design for these species should now be reconsidered and new experiments conducted in which the social aspects of the species are taken into account.

Publications

Key publications in peer-reviewed journals

Books

Articles in specialist publications

Krueger K. 2008–2009. Journal Bayerns Pferde Zucht und Sport,

Lectures as invited speaker at conferences

Die sensorische Lateralität als Indikator für emotionale und kognitive Reaktionen auf Umweltreize beim Tier (Übersichtreferat)

References

  1. "Artikel Pferd Plus – neue Studie über den Geruchssinn der Pferde". Pferdplus.com. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  2. "Bericht Zeitschrift Cavallo". Cavallo.de. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
  3. "Research significance for training mustangs". mustangcamp.org. 9 July 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  4. "Internationales Equiden Treffen". University of Regensburg. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  5. "DFG unterstützt Kongresse und Tagungen". Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  6. "Position at University of Regensburg". University of Regensburg. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  7. "Research shows horses learn from others". horseandcountry.tv. Archived from the original on 31 December 2013.
  8. "Horses and Social Learning". eventingnation.com.
  9. "Horses show ability for social learning in study". horsetalk.co.nz.
  10. "Research Project "Innovative Behaviour in Horses"". Equine Behaviour Team. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  11. 1 2 Krueger, K. (2007) Behaviour of horses in the "round pen technique" Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 104 162–170 full text
  12. 1 2 Krueger, K.;Heinze, J. (2008) Horse sense: social status of horses (Equus caballus) affects their likelihood of copying other horses` behavior Anim. Cogn. 11 431–439 full text
  13. Robert N. Oglesby DVM Moderator of horseadvice.com and discussion
  14. Equus (Journal) - Question from horse owner and Answer from Katherine Abro Houpt
  15. Equus (Journal) - How social rank affects learning Christine Barakat; Mick McCluskey
  16. 1 2 Farmer, K.; Krueger, K.; Byrne, R. (2010) Visual laterality in the domestic horse (Equus caballus) interacting with humans Anim. Cogn. 14 187–201 full text
  17. 1 2 Krüger, K. (): Third-party interventions keep social partners from exchanging affiliative interactions with others. Animal Behaviour, 5, 10–21.
  18. Baer, K.L.; Potter, G.D.; Friend, T.H.; Beaver, B.V., Observation effects on learning in horses, 1983, Applied Animal Ethology, 726, 11, 123–129.
  19. Baker, A. E. M., & Crawford, B. H. (1986). Observational learning in horses. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 15(1), 7–13..
  20. Clarke, J. V., Nicol, C. J., Jones, R., & McGreevy, P. D. (1996). Effects of observational learning on food selection in horses. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 50(2), 177–184.
  21. Lindberg, A. C., Kelland, A., & Nicol, C. J. (1999). Effects of observational learning on acquisition of an operant response in horses. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci., 61(3), 187–199.
  22. Krueger, K., Flauger, B., Farmer, K., & Hemelrijk, C. (2014). Movement initiation in groups of feral horses. Behav. Process., 103, 91–101.
  23. Krueger K, Farmer K, Heinze J (2013) The effects of age, rank and neophobia on social learning in horses. DOI full text
  24. Krueger, K; Farmer, K. (2011) Laterality in the Horse [Lateralität beim Pferd ] mup 4 160–167
  25. Krueger, K.; Flauger, B.; Farmer, K.; Maros, K. (2011) Horses (Equus caballus) use human local enhancement cues and adjust to human attention Anim. Cogn. 14 187–201 full text
  26. Krueger, K.; Flauger, B. (2008) Social feeding decisions in horses (Equus caballus) Behav. Process. 78 76–83 full text
  27. Krueger, K.; Flauger, B. (2007) Social learning in horses from a novel perspective Behav. Process. 76 37–39 full text
  28. "Opening Speaker 43. Internationale Tagung Angewandte Ethologie" (PDF). Retrieved 10 August 2012.
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