Language
English
Publication Date
1-21-2026
Journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society B
DOI
10.1098/rspb.2025.2468
PMID
41558789
Abstract
Encounters between competitive individuals or groups are common in social animals and can involve costly aggression; thus, animals often employ strategies to minimize direct conflict. However, research on whether and how animals adjust their group spatial structure when they encounter or spatially co-occur with a different group remains limited. We investigated how non-territorial units in feral horse multilevel societies manage spatial encounters with neighbouring units. We observed 25 reproductive units in northern Portugal, using drones, and employed statistical analyses to quantify spatial dynamics. We found that horses actively adjusted their spatial formations depending on the proximity of other units. Units became more circular and cohesive when other units approached, but when extremely close, they elongated their shapes to avoid boundary crossings. These adjustments indicate that horses maintain flexible unit boundaries to prevent mixing with other units. A notable exception was a particular pair of units that frequently crossed boundaries and intermixed, representing a unique social level within the horse multilevel society. Overall, our findings indicate that feral horses respond adaptively to inter-unit encounters by balancing the benefits of aggregation with the need to reduce direct overlap, providing new insights into the spatial organization of non-territorial societies.
Keywords
Animals, Horses, Portugal, Social Behavior, Female, Behavior, Animal, Animals, Wild, Male, drone, feral horse, multilevel society, spatial structure
Published Open-Access
yes
Recommended Citation
Maeda, Tamao; Inoue, Sota; Ringhofer, Monamie; et al., "Spatial Strategies in Non-Territorial Societies: How Feral Horses Maintain Boundaries With Other Groups" (2026). Faculty, Staff and Students Publications. 8374.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/baylor_docs/8374