University of Sussex
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

Mule cognition: a case of hybrid vigour?

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 10:38 authored by Leanne Proops, Faith Burden, Britta Osthaus
This study compares the behaviour of the mule (Equus asinus Equus caballus) with that of its parent species to assess the eVects of hybridization on cognition. Six mules, six ponies (E. caballus) and six donkeys (E. asinus) were given a two choice visual discrimination learning task. Each session consisted of 12 trials and pass level was reached when subjects chose the correct stimulus for at least 9 out of the 12 trials in three consecutive sessions. A record was made of how many pairs each subject learnt over 25 sessions. The mules performance was signiWcantly better than that of either of the parent species (Kruskal- Wallis: Hx = 8.11, P = 0.017). They were also the only group to learn enough pairs to be able to show a successive reduction in the number of sessions required to reach criterion level. This study provides the Wrst empirical evidence that the improved characteristics of mules may be extended from physical attributes to cognitive function.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Animal Cognition

ISSN

1435-9448

Publisher

Springer Verlag

Issue

1

Volume

12

Page range

75-84

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-21

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC