Applied Animal Ethology最新文献

The effects on maternal behaviour, of washing lambs and of confining ewes with alien lambs for several days, were examined in groups of Merino ewes that had lambed approximately 1, 3, 9 or 27 days previously. In the 1-, 3- and 9-day groups, 25–43% of ewes refused to allow their own washed lambs to suck and 7–47% permitted a washed alien to suck, though most were able to distinguish their own washed lamb from 2 washed aliens in a multiple choice test. In the 27-day group, all ewes permitted only their own washed lamb to suck. Similar results were obtained in the 4 age groups with the same lambs when only the hind half was washed, indicating that odour from this region is responsible for releasing suckling behaviour.

When ewes were penned together with washed alien lambs for at least 2 days, 73–100% of lambs in the 1-, 3- and 9-day groups either gained weight progressively or were seen to suck freely from the foster mother, while only 33% of lambs in the 27-day group were similary accepted. With unwashed lambs, the acceptance rate was approximately half that of washed lambs. Labelling the alien lamb with wool from the tail region of the foster ewe's own lamb also tended to facilitate fostering, but not to any marked extent. Where the ewe's own lamb was also present in the flock after fostering, foster ewes tended to revert to suckling their own lamb at the expense of the foster lamb, especially in the 9- and 27-day groups.

The use of washing coupled with close confinement appears to be an effective method of fostering lambs on to ewes, especially within the first day or two after birth.

Fifty-five % of ewes in the 1- and 3-day groups failed to accept their own unwashed lamb after being separated from it for only 40–48 h, indicating that the ewe's memory for lamb odour is transient and/or that the odour changes with time.

One out of each of 6 balanced paired groups of 8 weaner piglets, held in flat-deck cages for one week, was supplied with a trough containing sterilized earth. The behaviour of the animals in each group was observed by systematic scanning at 2-min intervals for 4 periods of 20 min on each of 3 days, after the piglets had been in the cages for 4 days. In all groups, the piglets with the trough made use of it and the amount of lying inactive was greater in all groups without the trough. In piglets weaned immediately into the experimental cages, the frequency of lying inactive was positively correlated with temperature. It is suggested that enrichment of the bare cage environment by provision of an earth trough resulted in an elaboration of a number of behaviours. This may be interpreted as an indication of reduced boredom.

The accuracy and efficiency of oestrus detection using behavioural observations only, or in combination with hormone-treated steers or tail paint, was assessed on a large commercial dairy herd of 120 cows. The oestrus detection rate was 50, 88 and 80%, respectively, with no significant difference in conception rate between methods following artificial insemination. Continual observation for 12 h during the day detected 83% of oestrous cows over the 3-week period.

Progesterone analysis of fore-milk confirmed oestrus in all cows detected except for 5 cows detected with steers and 4 with tail paint. As all except 2 of these animals conceived at that oestrus, the accuracy of the 3 methods was considered to be the same.

Oestrous activity in cows was high at morning milking, then rose again to reach a peak in early afternoon. Mean number of mounts/oestrous cow, observed during the 12 h of continual daily observation, was 14.6 +- 1.8.

The implication of these results on dairy herd management are discussed.

Continuous observations during the first 6 h post partum were made on 38 heifers and 44 cows calving in individual pens, and 11 heifers and 40 cows calving in group housing. Only 22% of group-housed cows isolated themselves at calving. Many interactions involving alien cows and calves were observed in a group-calving situation and resulted in 4 cases of desertion of a newborn calf. Such interactions most commonly involved newborn calves and cows close to parturition. Calves born in group housing moved away from their dam more and directed a high proportion of teat-seeking towards alien cows. 33% of calves cross-suckled during the first 6 h of life.

In most cases, the social organisation of each of the seven species of Equidae existing today outside captivity is either territorial or non-territorial. The striking differences found between these two types of organisation in the social grouping and bonds, mating behaviour, leadership and dominance hierarchies of the animals are examined. It is thought that the non-territorial species show a less primitive type of organisation than the territorial animals.

Infant Equidae are precocious animals and are able to follow their dams soon after birth. They stay close by their dams and travel with the herd from an early age and are therefore classified as “followers”, in contrast to the species which have a period of hiding after birth. Dams recognise their foals immediately after birth, whereas it takes 2 or 3 days for a foal to form an attachment to its dam. Being in close proximity to their dams, foals are able to nurse frequently and, unless artificially weaned, a foal will nurse until its dam foals again.

Foals start to graze during their first week and as they grow older they spend more time grazing and less time nursing and resting. It is normal for foals to be corprophagic until one month old, and this provides them with bacteria essential for the digestion of fibre. Play behaviour is solitary in very young foals, but after 4 weeks of age, foals play together, with male foals playing more than females and showing more aggressive, fighting movements in play.

Two White Leghorn stocks (Y₁ and Y₂) and sire families within each were compared for nervousness scores and for latencies to feed and to return to “normal” activity after being subjected to fear-inducing stimuli, involving either a metronome or the cage being struck by a human observer. Information on feather damage and loss, age at sexual maturity, and part-year egg-mass production was also collected. Strain differences were clearly evident for nervousness score, duration of fearful behavior, and feather loss. The strain having more nervous and fearful hens also suffered greater feather damage and loss. Sire-family differences were erratically present for the same traits.

Correlation coefficients calculated within strains for latency data obtained by 2 observers, working independently, indicated significant repeatability in 5 of 8 comparisons (r values from 0.50 to 0.91). Correlations of latencies within strains obtained by the use of 2 kinds of fear-inducing stimuli also indicated significant repeatability in 4 of 8 comparisons (r values from 0.35 to 0.88). Further intra-strain correlation analyses indicated that fearful behavior, as measured by latencies, tended to be associated with number of hens per cage, but was relatively independent of neighbors' behavior. Greater nervous and fearful behavior of caged groups tended to be significantly associated with greater feather loss and non-significantly associated with earlier sexual maturity and lower egg-mass production of 30 – 40-week-old pullets.

Medical records at a small-animal practice in Vermont were surveyed and animals that displayed unprovoked and consistently aggressive behavior towards veterinarians were grouped by breed and ranked. The 6 dog breeds exhibiting the highest frequency of aggression towards veterinarians and hospital staff members were the Schnauzer, Old English Sheepdog, Beagle, German Shepherd, Doberman Pinscher and English Springer Spaniel. These breeds represented a mixture of traditionally “aggressive” and “non-aggressive” breeds.

Four male and four female kittens were reared in each of the following rearing conditions: (1) mother and a littermate; (2) alone with their mother; (3) brooder and littermate; (4) alone with a brooder. Each of the 32 kittens were separated briefly from their rearing condition once a week from 2–5 weeks of age. They were placed alone in an open field with a mechanical toy and a brooder replicate. The brooder-reared kittens spent more time with the toy than the mother-reared kittens. In fact, they spent more time with the mechanical toy than they did with the brooder. The brooder-reared kittens entered more squares than the mother-reared infants, but vocalized less than the mother-reared kittens. It was concluded that while all kittens appear to form social attachments, brooder-reared kittens do not seem to form substitute social attachments to a brooder.