Genetics and Behavior During Handling, Restraint, and Herding - Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals - page 135

( Perez-Guisado, et al., 2006; Podberscek and Serpell, 1996 ), and cats
( Kendall and Ley, 2006 ).
Both authors have heard reports from dairymen that white Holsteins are
flighty and often more dangerous to handle than more pigmented cows.
These casual observations made by dairymen may be explained partially by
findings from studies on coat color temperament relationships in other ani-

mals. Tozser et al. (2003) used a scale test and exit-speed scores to assess
temperament in a group of Red and Black Angus bull calves. In this sample
the red bulls were calmer than the black bulls in the temperament score, and
were found easier to handle by the Stockmen. Experiments on horses also
demonstrate that chestnuts are more reactive than bays and dark-colored
sheep and goats were more motile than white ones (in Hemmer, 1990 ).

Hair Whorls
In humans, it is well known that hair whorl patterns form in the fetus at the
same time the brain is forming ( Smith and Gong, 1974 ). Hair whorl patterns
are associated with handedness ( Beaton and Mellor, 2007; Hatfield, 2006;
Klar, 2003; Schmidt, et al. 2008 ; Zarate and Zarate, 1991 ), hemispheric lan-
guage dominance ( Jansen et al., 2007; Weber et al., 2006 ), sexual preference
( Hatfield, 2006 ; Klar, 2004 ), and schizophrenia ( Alexander et al., 1992 ;
Yousefi-Nooraie and Moratz-Hedjri, 2008 ). Scalp hair patterning is deter-
mined at 10 16 weeks of fetal life and is secondary to the growth and shape

of tissues which underlie the fetal skin, especially the brain. Thus aberrant
scalp hair patterning may be utilized as a clinical indicator of aberrant
growth and/or shape of the early fetal brain prior to 16 weeks' gestation
( Scott et al., 2005; Smith and Gong, 1974; Tirosh et al., 1987 ). Children
with developmental disorders, such as Down's syndrome and Prader-Willi
syndrome have a high incidence of abnormal scalp hair whorl patterns
( Smith and Gong, 1973, 1974 ). Many body traits form very early in develop-
ment at the same time the brain is forming.
Hair whorl patterns and temperament in horses was first observed hun-
dreds of years ago in Arabia. In his work as a horse trainer, the second
author observed that a “high” hair whorl on a horses' forehead, or those with
two spiral hair whorls were more reactive and “high strung.” Other horse
trainers and veterinarians have observed a casual relationship between hair
whorl patterns and temperament ( Barker, 1990; Friedly, 1990; Tellington-
Jones and Bruns, 1985 ). Many scientists believed these observations were
rubbish and that horsemen were wrong. In the early 1990's we set out to
find if scientific evidence support these observations. We decided to study
hair whorls and temperament in cattle. Cattle and horses have similar hair
whorl patterns on their foreheads ( Figures 4.3 and 4.4 ). It was easy to
observe large numbers of cattle with similar genetics and handling experi-
ence. Cattle are not handled in the same way as horses, and their behavior is