| March 1994 | |
| approbation in Veterinarian Medicine at the University of Munich, Germany | |
| 28 July 1995 | |
| finished PhD thesis at the Department of Histology and Anatomy, Institute of Veterinarian Medicine, University of Munich, Germany | |
| January 1996 – January 1997 | |
| post doc at the Department of Histology and Anatomy, University of Munich, Germany | |
| January 1997 – April 1999 | |
| family leave | |
| April 1999 – February 2006 | |
| manager and part owner of a riding school in Regensburg. | |
| June 2004 | |
| restart of scientific career at the Department of Biology I, Zoology. Topic: “Social learning and social cognition in horses” | |
| October 2008 | |
| organisation and management of the “1st International Equine Science Meeting” (IESM) at the University of Regensburg, Germany | |
| November 2011 | |
| submitting Habilitation thesis “Social Learning and Social Cognition in Horses”, applying for evaluation process | |
| March 2012 | |
| professorship for Horse Management at the University of Applied Sciences Nürtingen | |
| March 2012 | |
| organisation and management of the “2nd International Equine Science Meeting” (IESM) at the University of Regensburg, Germany | |
| May 2015 | |
| organisation and management of the “3rd International Equine Science Meeting” (IESM) at the HFWU, Germany | |
Social Cognition and Social Ecology in Horses
/fileadmin/user_upload/FAVM/personalprofiles_FAVM/krueger.konstanze/Bilder/DSC_0267.jpg
Whether animals are able to think is still a matter of debate. Unfortunately, they are not able to communicate verbally. Nevertheless, their communication system provides evidence for their mental processes. Our studies focus on the perception of social aspects in horses, on the conclusions the horses draw from it for themselves and the classification of the horses´ cognitive abilities. Starting off with a controlled test series in domestic horses kept in close to natural environments, we will gradually emerge to test the same aspects in feral and wild horses. Basically, research data will be discussed on an interdisciplinary level, which will include the fields of zoology, psychology and philosophy. Furthermore, we will provide a closer look at the ecology and evolution of social behaviour and in terms of the philosophical understanding of rational, mental abilities in animals.
Latest findings prove horses to be an exemplar for the call of integrating the species specific ecology in cognition research. In their underestimated, but actually quite complex “fission-fusion” social system horses show sophisticated cognitive skills, such as individual recognition, mutual protection of offspring, third party intervention behaviour and social learning. Some abstract mental abilities as for example long term memory and the abilities to categorize and generalize are also helpful in such a social system and therefore nicely developed in horses. Still it remains true, that horses perform fare below other species in most “abstract” cognition tasks, such as on short term memory, object permanence, orientation in mazes and recognition of quantities. These abilities are not needed for orientating in the horses environment and, therefore, were not selected for.
Please click into the logo for more information
