Some Stallion Voices More Attractive to Mares Than Others

Stallions with low-pitched whinnies were more fertile and more attractive to mares than those with high-pitched voices.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

We all have our own tastes when it comes to music. And, as it turns out, so do mares. Recent research results show that some stallions’ whinnies are music to mares’ ears, while others are decidedly less appealing.

The study authors indicated that vocal communication is important for many mammals and is used to assess a variety of characteristics, including:

  • Degree of familiarity with, and the identify of, the caller;
  • The caller’s size;
  • The caller’s dominance rank; and
  • The caller’s age.

“One of the main functions of vocal signals is to attract new mates, strengthen male-female bonding, and coordinate copulation and even inform others about success of copulation,” explained Alban Lemasson, PhD, professor and director of the Laboratory of Animal and Human Ethology, a branch of the French national research center and the University of Rennes.

In horses, the whinny—a loud, long-distance call—is exchanged both between and within sexes, but whether mares display preferences to certain types of voices remained unclear. Lemasson and colleagues speculated that stallion whinnies also confer information regarding arousal and fertility and that mares would react differently to different whinnies

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Stacey Oke, MSc, DVM, is a practicing veterinarian and freelance medical writer and editor. She is interested in both large and small animals, as well as complementary and alternative medicine. Since 2005, she’s worked as a research consultant for nutritional supplement companies, assisted physicians and veterinarians in publishing research articles and textbooks, and written for a number of educational magazines and websites.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
300 votes · 300 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!