A mathematical equation for estimating the body weight of Japanese Saanen goats was developed using heart girth and body length. Body weight (W; kg), heart girth (G; m), body length (L; m), sex and age of 397 goats, including castrated, buck, goatling, pregnant, lactating and dry ones, were measured at 6, 12 and 24 months of age, and data on a total of 595 animals were collected for regression analysis. Three-fourths of the goats were randomly selected from each stratum made by sex and age, and data from those goats were used for training (or learning) data (456 animals) and the data from the remaining goats were used for test data (139 animals). In addition, 451 goats excluding abnormal values (5 animals) of the training data were used for basic data. Three regression models were constructed based on the basic data (451 goats). The first model employed G²L as the only explanatory variable, the second model sex, age and G²L, and the third model was obtained by applying a stepwise forward model selection technique to two potential explanatory variables, G and L. Correlation coefficients between predicted and observed values of W and residual standard deviation (RSD) were used for comparison measures. Those measures for each model were computed using the test data (139 goats). Equation (1) W = 89.96G²L + 2.29 was selected as the best model with the correlation coefficient 0.960 and RSD 4.450. The other two models were expressed as follows: (2) W = 80.65G²L - 1.43sex + 0.28age + 4.38 (r = 0.964, RSD = 4.243) and (3) W = 135.24G + 30.52L - 83.72 (r = 0.958, RSD = 4.605). The fact that it is simple, has a high correlation coefficient, and was selected based on test data that were independent of training data, indicates that the estimate of the body weight obtained from a new goat is highly reliable. It is concluded that the above simple equation (1) is useful for estimating the body weight of Japanese Saanen goats.

Animals use communicative signals, such as gesture or gaze, to communicate to someone the intention or expression of the sender, which is called social cue. In the previous studies, it was suggested the skill of reading human social cue in domestic animals are influenced to the domestication, the experience contacting with human and training to obey human. In this present study, we tested the skill for horses (Equus caballus) kept in year-round grazing conditions using 33 horses differed from breed and the degree of the experience with human by object-choice task subjects choosing either of bait boxes located at the end of experimenter. As results, non-socialized horses hardly responded to human social cues. Habituated horses that were both of trained and untrained responded to human social cues, but their accuracy rates were not more than 50% except for two trained subjects. For the skill of reading human social cues, there was high individual variation in responding to human social cues in horses kept in year-round grazing conditions. The individual characteristics influenced to it more than domestication, the experience with human, and training to obey human.