Sheep in Species-Rich Temperate Grassland: Combining Behavioral Observations with Vegetation Characterization

Foraging behavior of livestock in species-rich, less intensively managed grassland communities will require different methodologies from those appropriate in floristically simple environments. In this pilot study on sheep in species-rich grassland in northern Estonia, foraging behavior and the plant...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animals (Basel) 2020-09, Vol.10 (9), p.1471
Main Authors: Hall, Stephen J.G., Bunce, Robert G.H., Arney, David R., Vollmer, Elis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Biomass
Cameras
Environmental gradient
feeding behavior
Fine structure
Food and nutrition
Foraging behavior
Grassland management
Grasslands
Grazing
Herbivores
Investigations
Livestock
Numerical analysis
pasture
Physiological aspects
Plant species
Recording
Sheep
Sound
Ultrastructure
Vegetation
vegetation analysis
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Summary:Foraging behavior of livestock in species-rich, less intensively managed grassland communities will require different methodologies from those appropriate in floristically simple environments. In this pilot study on sheep in species-rich grassland in northern Estonia, foraging behavior and the plant species of the immediate area grazed by the sheep were registered by continually-recording Go-Pro cameras. From three days of observation of five sheep (706 animal-minutes), foraging behavior was documented. Five hundred and thirty-six still images were sampled, and a plant species list was compiled for each. Each plant species was assigned a score indicating its location, in the ecophysiological sense, on the main environmental gradient. The scores of the plant species present were averaged for each image. Thus, the fine structure of foraging behavior could be studied in parallel with the vegetation of the precise area being grazed. As expected, there was considerable individual variation, and we characterized foraging behavior by quantifying the patterns of interspersion of grazing and non-grazing behaviors. This combination of behavior recording and vegetation classification could enable a numerical analysis of the responses of grazing livestock to vegetation conditions.
ISSN:2076-2615
2076-2615
DOI:10.3390/ani10091471