Konstanze Krüger (née ''Konstanze Deubner'', born 22 January 1968) is a German
zoologist
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...
and behaviour researcher. She is Professor of Horse Management at
Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Science
The Nürtingen-Geislingen University (German: ''Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Umwelt Nürtingen-Geislingen'') is a public university of applied sciences based in Nürtingen and Geislingen an der Steige, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.
History
T ...
, and her special field of research is the social system of
horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...
s.
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.
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
The Nürtingen-Geislingen University (German: ''Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Umwelt Nürtingen-Geislingen'') is a public university of applied sciences based in Nürtingen and Geislingen an der Steige, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.
History
T ...
. In March 2012, she organised the 2nd International Equine Science Meeting at the University of Regensburg, sponsored by the
DFG.
In Okctober 2012, she was promoted to the position of Professor of Zoology at the University of Regensburg.
Research focus
* Social cognition in horses
* Social ecology of horses
* Innovative Behaviour in horse
Methods
* Longterm field Studies
* Social Network Analysis
* Hierarchy Calculations
* Behaviour Test
Practical application of research in equestrian sport and horse management
*Behaviour of horses in the "round pen technique"
: 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
Marvin Earl "Monty" Roberts MVO (born May 14, 1935) is an American horse trainer who promotes his techniques of natural horsemanship through his ''Join-Up International'' organization, named after the core concept of his training method. 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.
*Horse sense: social status of horses (Equus caballus) affects their likelihood of copying other 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.
It also reveals that only horses from the same social group are suitable demonstrators.
*Visual laterality in the domestic horse (Equus caballus) interacting with humans
: 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 observe a potentially dangerous object with its left eye until it calms down.
*Third-party interventions keep social partners from exchanging affiliative interactions with others
: 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.;
Baker and Crawford 1986;
Clarke et al. 1996;
Lindberg et al. 1999
) 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
* Krueger, K., Flauger, B., Farmer, K., & Hemelrijk, C. (2014). Movement initiation in groups of feral horses. Behav. Process., 103, 91–101.
[Krueger, K., Flauger, B., Farmer, K., & Hemelrijk, C. (2014). Movement initiation in groups of feral horses. Behav. Process., 103, 91–10]
/ref>
* Krueger K, Farmer K, Heinze J (2013) The effects of age, rank and neophobia on social learning in horses. Anim. Cogn 17, 645-655[ Konstanze Krueger, Krueger K, Farmer K, Heinze J (2013) The effects of age, rank and neophobia on social learning in horses.]
DOIfull text
/ref>
* Schneider, G.; Krueger, K. (2012) Third-party interventions keep social partners from exchanging affiliative interactions with others Anim. Behav. 83 377–387.
Books
Trainingslehre Für Dressurpferde
Das Pferd im Blickpunkt der Wissenschaft
Articles in specialist publications
Krueger K. 2008–2009. Journal Bayerns Pferde Zucht und Sport,
* Der Linksdrall: Sensorische Einseitigkeit bei Pferden 2008, 10, pp. 66–68
* Pferdeverhalten: So integriere ich mein Pferd in die Herde. 2008, 12, pp. 64–69
* Das Sozialsystem des Pferdes: Das Know-how für den täglichen Umgang. 2009, 1, pp. 72–76
* Das Sozialsystem des Pferdes, Teil II: Führungspersönlichkeiten. 2009, 2, pp. 76–80
* Visuelle Fähigkeiten der Pferde. 2009
* Die Erkennung von Artgenossen und Menschen. 2009
* Das Gedächtnis der Pferde, 2009, 7
* Die Unarten des Pferdes, 2009, 9, pp. 84–89
* Charakterpferde, 2009, 12
Lectures as invited speaker at conferences
* Opening Speaker 43. Internationale Tagung Angewandte Ethologie
References
External links
Homepage Konstanze Krüger
]
* ttp://innovative-behaviour.org/en/ Research Project "Innovative Behaviour in Horses"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kruger, Konstanze
20th-century German zoologists
Ethologists
1968 births
Living people
21st-century German zoologists
Scientists from Cologne