In addition to grazing in motion, which we have discussed previously, our horses sometimes do something which I call changing fields. This means that they move, as a group and relatively quickly, from one place to another that is a significant distance away. In some cases this means actually leaving one field and going to another, which involves considerable effort. typically there is little, if any, grazing done during the move.
The research questions here are things like this;
1. How do they decide, as a group, to make this change?
2. How do they decide where to go?
3. Do they know where they are going when they start out?
4. Why do they go where they go?
In some cases this change involves a food change. For example, they may go from eating pasture grass to eating bushes along a fence, or weeds in a wetland. On the other hand, what amount to field changes often happen within a single field. It would take good data on the location of various food types, as well as the horses' behavior, to explore this food aspect of field changes.
There is no single horse that always leads a field change. However, good data might reveal that some horses lead more often than others. This may be due to the fact that our group appears to have no leader. For example, it appears that every horse in the herd can be pushed off of a hay pile by some other horse. I call this a circular pecking order because horse A can push horse B, while horse B can push horse C, but horse C can push horse A. Thus there is no top horse, one which cannot be pushed. This behavior in itself is worth studying, especially in the context of group decision making.
On the other hand this herd has had top horses in the past. Whether having a top horse in the herd changes who leads field changes is another interesting question.
The basic point is that changing fields is an easily recognizable behavior that raises specific questions about the decision making involved.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Monday, December 22, 2014
Grazing data. Easy to see but hard to get.
Grazing by horses is a good example of the challenge of getting good data to do research on. Getting good data is often the difficult and expensive part of doing research and grazing is no exception.
As we have discussed, our small observation herd of horses grazes in a way that is both active and mysterious. They are seldom in the same location for very long (but sometimes they are). The research question is "what rules explain this complex grazing behavior?"
In order to answer this question (if we can) we will need good data on where the horses graze over time, because that is what we are trying to explain. We probably need at least several months of data. This data sounds simple enough but getting it will not be easy. It is one thing to see that the horses are typically moving around a lot, but quite another to track just where they go and when.
Here are some possibilities, ranked by the quality (and cost) of the resulting data.
1. Attach a GPS transmitter to each horse. Each transmitter sends the horses location to a central receiving station, either in real time or periodically.
2. Attach a GPS recorder to each horse, which is then read manually from time to time to get the data.
3. Contract for satellite photos of the fields to be taken at (hopefully regular) intervals. Does not work at night or when cloudy.
4. Set up automated cameras at various locations to take repeated pictures of the fields. The location of the horses at each time can then be calculated manually using triangulation. Laborious and does not work at night.
5. Monitor one or more specific locations, such as with an automated camera taking periodic pictures. Incomplete data.
6. Manually estimate and note where the horses are, from time to time. Laborious and incomplete.
There are other data collection strategies, I am sure, and I would be happy to hear about them.
In short there is no easy and cheap way to get good data, even though the behavior is right there in front of us. This challenge is a big part of what makes good science difficult and expensive to do.
As we have discussed, our small observation herd of horses grazes in a way that is both active and mysterious. They are seldom in the same location for very long (but sometimes they are). The research question is "what rules explain this complex grazing behavior?"
In order to answer this question (if we can) we will need good data on where the horses graze over time, because that is what we are trying to explain. We probably need at least several months of data. This data sounds simple enough but getting it will not be easy. It is one thing to see that the horses are typically moving around a lot, but quite another to track just where they go and when.
Here are some possibilities, ranked by the quality (and cost) of the resulting data.
1. Attach a GPS transmitter to each horse. Each transmitter sends the horses location to a central receiving station, either in real time or periodically.
2. Attach a GPS recorder to each horse, which is then read manually from time to time to get the data.
3. Contract for satellite photos of the fields to be taken at (hopefully regular) intervals. Does not work at night or when cloudy.
4. Set up automated cameras at various locations to take repeated pictures of the fields. The location of the horses at each time can then be calculated manually using triangulation. Laborious and does not work at night.
5. Monitor one or more specific locations, such as with an automated camera taking periodic pictures. Incomplete data.
6. Manually estimate and note where the horses are, from time to time. Laborious and incomplete.
There are other data collection strategies, I am sure, and I would be happy to hear about them.
In short there is no easy and cheap way to get good data, even though the behavior is right there in front of us. This challenge is a big part of what makes good science difficult and expensive to do.
Friday, December 5, 2014
Swarming horses
I have written before about the fascinating and mysterious behavior that horses exhibit when grazing together. The individual horses are frequently close together, but not always. They clearly choose collectively where to graze, which is highly variable and unpredictable, but how?
The relatively new artificial intelligence field called "swarm intelligence" may be useful here.
See http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligence for an introduction.
Swarming in this case is a technical term. It refers to complex collective behavior governed by relatively simple rules operating at the individual level. Work in this area goes by other names as well, such as flocking. See http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flocking_(behavior).
The research question then arises whether these two collective grazing behaviors of horses, staying together and moving around, can be explained using swarm or flocking rules?
For example, it has been suggested that the way deer move around from day to day is deliberately random, in order to deter predation based on predictable behavior. Where horses graze, from hour to hour and day to day, is certainly complex, but is it random or due to some combination of simple rules?
Mind you we may not have to actually build swarming horse robots. Computer simulation may be enough. We will of course also need specific data describing these behaviors in detail. Thus the research is not simple. But the results might be useful in both horse and land management, as well as for grazing critters besides horses, such as cattle, sheep and deer.
The relatively new artificial intelligence field called "swarm intelligence" may be useful here.
See http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligence for an introduction.
Swarming in this case is a technical term. It refers to complex collective behavior governed by relatively simple rules operating at the individual level. Work in this area goes by other names as well, such as flocking. See http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flocking_(behavior).
The research question then arises whether these two collective grazing behaviors of horses, staying together and moving around, can be explained using swarm or flocking rules?
For example, it has been suggested that the way deer move around from day to day is deliberately random, in order to deter predation based on predictable behavior. Where horses graze, from hour to hour and day to day, is certainly complex, but is it random or due to some combination of simple rules?
Mind you we may not have to actually build swarming horse robots. Computer simulation may be enough. We will of course also need specific data describing these behaviors in detail. Thus the research is not simple. But the results might be useful in both horse and land management, as well as for grazing critters besides horses, such as cattle, sheep and deer.
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Robotic nest building
Technically what we are doing here is called cognitive ethology. Ethology involves looking for patterns in animal behavior, especially natural behavior as opposed to artificial laboratory experiments. It often involves looking at various different species as well.
The cognitive aspect is that we are looking specifically at behavior that involves understanding, reasoning and decision making. We have been studying these features in humans for many years.
Part of our approach is to look at artificial intelligence for help, because this field often involves the mimicking of cognition. As pointed out previously, building expert systems is a way to look at the rules that people and animals use to make decisions. The same is true of robotics.
Building robots to perform complex tasks has also taught us a great deal. So, for example, what would a robin's nest building robot look like? In particular, what cognitive functions would it have to implement? At the highest level these include finding and choosing a nest site, then finding and selecting various building materials, in parallel with assembling them into the final nest.
None of these are simple tasks and more importantly none is well understood. Mind you I do not expect anyone to spend the millions of dollars it would take to build such a robot. The point is to think about all the things it would have to do.
In recent years people have developed robotic cars that work pretty well under certain conditions. One wonders if a nest building robot would be simpler, or more complex, than a self driving car? I do not think we know at this point.
The cognitive aspect is that we are looking specifically at behavior that involves understanding, reasoning and decision making. We have been studying these features in humans for many years.
Part of our approach is to look at artificial intelligence for help, because this field often involves the mimicking of cognition. As pointed out previously, building expert systems is a way to look at the rules that people and animals use to make decisions. The same is true of robotics.
Building robots to perform complex tasks has also taught us a great deal. So, for example, what would a robin's nest building robot look like? In particular, what cognitive functions would it have to implement? At the highest level these include finding and choosing a nest site, then finding and selecting various building materials, in parallel with assembling them into the final nest.
None of these are simple tasks and more importantly none is well understood. Mind you I do not expect anyone to spend the millions of dollars it would take to build such a robot. The point is to think about all the things it would have to do.
In recent years people have developed robotic cars that work pretty well under certain conditions. One wonders if a nest building robot would be simpler, or more complex, than a self driving car? I do not think we know at this point.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Eating versus investigating, two clear cases of decision making
It is important to recognize situations where animals clearly have a decision to make. These constitutes experiments of sorts, that is controlled conditions where behavior can be clearly observed. It does not matter that these conditions are created for other purposes.
Recently we have created two situations in which our observation herd of horses had to choose between eating and what I will call investigating, for want of a better term. In both cases they chose investigating, which is interesting.
In the first case we let the herd into a small field for the first time. It is fall and the grasses in their regular fields has been eaten down so that it is very short, just an inch or two tall inmost places. In fact we have begun feeding hay when the weather is bad.
The new field was thick with grass, over a foot tall in most places. The horses have never been in this field but it is across a fence from one of their regular fields so well known to them after several years of seeing into it. This field is also rather complex as it has two cross fences with gates in different places.
When we turned the horses into this new field they clearly had two options. They could start eating the new grass or they could explore the field. They chose to explore the field, in a very decisive manner.
They stayed together and covered the territory, getting into every section and corner, which took about five minutes. They did not eat during this time. Then they suddenly stopped exploring and started eating. We have now put them into this field four times and the investigating behavior has not been repeated. They know where they are it seems.
As an aside, they have done a lot of what we call grazing in motion, so the grass is being clipped pretty uniformly in the entire field.
The second case arises when we feed hay. There are seven horses in the observation herd, so we scatter the hay in at least that many small piles. The horses could simply pick a pile and start eating, perhaps after sorting for dominance, but that is not what happens.
Instead, the horses actively investigate the hay. It appears that every horse looks at every pile but it would take careful video analysis to determine this. There is certainly a great deal of milling about among the piles. I have seen this behavior repeatedly and will study it more closely.
These two cases illustrate a simple point. If we recognize when animals have big decisions to make we can study their decision making. It can be surprising.
Recently we have created two situations in which our observation herd of horses had to choose between eating and what I will call investigating, for want of a better term. In both cases they chose investigating, which is interesting.
In the first case we let the herd into a small field for the first time. It is fall and the grasses in their regular fields has been eaten down so that it is very short, just an inch or two tall inmost places. In fact we have begun feeding hay when the weather is bad.
The new field was thick with grass, over a foot tall in most places. The horses have never been in this field but it is across a fence from one of their regular fields so well known to them after several years of seeing into it. This field is also rather complex as it has two cross fences with gates in different places.
When we turned the horses into this new field they clearly had two options. They could start eating the new grass or they could explore the field. They chose to explore the field, in a very decisive manner.
They stayed together and covered the territory, getting into every section and corner, which took about five minutes. They did not eat during this time. Then they suddenly stopped exploring and started eating. We have now put them into this field four times and the investigating behavior has not been repeated. They know where they are it seems.
As an aside, they have done a lot of what we call grazing in motion, so the grass is being clipped pretty uniformly in the entire field.
The second case arises when we feed hay. There are seven horses in the observation herd, so we scatter the hay in at least that many small piles. The horses could simply pick a pile and start eating, perhaps after sorting for dominance, but that is not what happens.
Instead, the horses actively investigate the hay. It appears that every horse looks at every pile but it would take careful video analysis to determine this. There is certainly a great deal of milling about among the piles. I have seen this behavior repeatedly and will study it more closely.
These two cases illustrate a simple point. If we recognize when animals have big decisions to make we can study their decision making. It can be surprising.
Friday, October 17, 2014
Migration decision mystery
The blue jays are migrating past our observatory these days. They come by in groups of from five to forty and have been doing so for several weeks; perhaps a thousand have passed by so far.
There is a great decision making mystery with the blue jay migration. It is well known and described here:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue_Jay/lifehistory
And here:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_jay
It appears that individual birds decide each year whether to migrate southward or not. There are large numbers of migrants every year but any given blue jay may or may not be among them.
The question is how each bird makes this annual migration decision? For example, what factors does the bird consider?
It has been suggested that the weather and the food supply may be important. This may be true but it does not explain why some birds in the same place leave while others stay. It may have to do with each bird's personality, which might be quite complex. Perhaps the birds that migrate are literally those who feel like doing so.
Another possibility is that these are actually group decisions. Birds make a lot of collective decisions, in ways that are poorly understood. How a flock decides which way to fly, without a leader, is the classic example of group decision making and it is poorly understood. Blue jays migrate in groups. Perhaps they also decide who will go that way. (Horses also make group decisions, such as where to graze.)
The point is that blue jay migration is a clear case of something that is actually widespread and poorly understood, namely animal decision making.
There is a great decision making mystery with the blue jay migration. It is well known and described here:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue_Jay/lifehistory
And here:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_jay
It appears that individual birds decide each year whether to migrate southward or not. There are large numbers of migrants every year but any given blue jay may or may not be among them.
The question is how each bird makes this annual migration decision? For example, what factors does the bird consider?
It has been suggested that the weather and the food supply may be important. This may be true but it does not explain why some birds in the same place leave while others stay. It may have to do with each bird's personality, which might be quite complex. Perhaps the birds that migrate are literally those who feel like doing so.
Another possibility is that these are actually group decisions. Birds make a lot of collective decisions, in ways that are poorly understood. How a flock decides which way to fly, without a leader, is the classic example of group decision making and it is poorly understood. Blue jays migrate in groups. Perhaps they also decide who will go that way. (Horses also make group decisions, such as where to graze.)
The point is that blue jay migration is a clear case of something that is actually widespread and poorly understood, namely animal decision making.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Funding my research on horse and critter cognition
Our research concept is this: Instinct is a body of expert knowledge or belief. The research question is how can we discover and represent it? After all, knowledge representation in humans is a well developed field.
So we have begun to explore the ways that this research might be funded. There are a variety of possible funding sources, because animal behavior is also a well developed field. We have done both federally funded and privately funded research in the past and both of these sources are available for animal behavior.
On the US federal side both NIH and NSF have programs related to animal behavior. The focus at NIH is veterinary, which includes instinct driven behavior that is harmful to the animal. At NSF the topic is part of the Biological Integration program. The USDA may do some work in this area as well, but it seems to be confined to agricultural animals.
Private sector research funding comes from a variety of sources. There are foundations that fund animal research, including several for horses. There are also various membership clubs and associations, especially for domestic and sporting animals, including horses.
There are also a number of associations that focus on wildlife and conservation, both of which involve behavior. This sort of research is also done by parks, zoos, conservation preserves, etc. There may be a U.S. Federal research role here as well, because there are a number of conservation and land management agencies.
Another interesting possibility is the emerging practice of "crowdsourcing" or "crowdfunding" where large numbers of people each contribute a small amount to a project. In particular there are a lot of horse owners who are interested in understanding their critters.
So we have begun to explore the ways that this research might be funded. There are a variety of possible funding sources, because animal behavior is also a well developed field. We have done both federally funded and privately funded research in the past and both of these sources are available for animal behavior.
On the US federal side both NIH and NSF have programs related to animal behavior. The focus at NIH is veterinary, which includes instinct driven behavior that is harmful to the animal. At NSF the topic is part of the Biological Integration program. The USDA may do some work in this area as well, but it seems to be confined to agricultural animals.
Private sector research funding comes from a variety of sources. There are foundations that fund animal research, including several for horses. There are also various membership clubs and associations, especially for domestic and sporting animals, including horses.
There are also a number of associations that focus on wildlife and conservation, both of which involve behavior. This sort of research is also done by parks, zoos, conservation preserves, etc. There may be a U.S. Federal research role here as well, because there are a number of conservation and land management agencies.
Another interesting possibility is the emerging practice of "crowdsourcing" or "crowdfunding" where large numbers of people each contribute a small amount to a project. In particular there are a lot of horse owners who are interested in understanding their critters.
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