Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T15:50:53.450Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Individual and social determinants of spontaneous group movements in cattle and sheep

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

A. Ramseyer ,
A. Boissy ,
B. Thierry  and
B. Dumont
A. Ramseyer*
Affiliation:
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), UR 1213 Herbivores, 63122 Saint-Genès-Champanelle, France Département Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie, Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Strasbourg, 23 rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg, France
A. Boissy
Affiliation:
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), UR 1213 Herbivores, 63122 Saint-Genès-Champanelle, France
B. Thierry
Affiliation:
Département Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie, Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Strasbourg, 23 rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg, France
B. Dumont
Affiliation:
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), UR 1213 Herbivores, 63122 Saint-Genès-Champanelle, France
*
†E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Group-living animals travel together to collectively exploit the resources of their environment. This study investigates how social relationships and individual temperament traits affect movement orders in domestic cattle and sheep. We analysed spontaneous group movements occurring at pasture after a resting period in a group of 15 18-month-old Charolais heifers and a group of 19 1-year-old Romane ewe-lambs. For each species, animals had similar social experience and no kinship ties. Before that, animals were observed within the group to establish their social status (e.g. dominance and preferential relationships, and sociability), then in individual tests in order to assess their emotional traits. In both species, most individuals could initiate a group movement but some individuals were more successful than others in recruiting the rest of the group. Ewe-lambs, and to a lesser extent heifers, held preferential positions during travel. We did not find any significant correlations in either species between animal order and their position in the dominance hierarchy (heifers: P = 0.438; ewe-lambs: P = 0.574) while individuals linked by preferential bonds frequently followed each other during group movements (heifers: P < 0.001; ewe-lambs: P < 0.001). With regard to social traits, heifers with a low cohesion index, and with a lower number of partners with whom they develop frequent affinitive interactions, acted more frequently as ‘first movers’ (P = 0.040 and 0.023, respectively), as well as did ewe-lambs with a high spatial independency index (P = 0.002). Ewe-lambs with the highest cohesion indices were more frequently observed in front of the group while moving halfway between departure and arrival (P = 0.028). We did not find significant correlations between individual positions during group movements and emotional traits such as reactivity, boldness and fearfulness. We conclude that preferential bonds and individual traits related to social dependence were more influential in spontaneous group movements at pasture than were emotional traits and dominance status.

Keywords

group movementgroup ordersocial relationshiptemperamentungulates
Type
Full Paper
Information
animal , Volume 3 , Issue 9 , September 2009 , pp. 1319 - 1326
Copyright
Copyright © The Animal Consortium 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Appleby, MC 1983. The probability of linearity in hierarchies. Animal Behaviour 31, 600–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, DW, Dumont, B, WallisDeVries, MF 1998. Utilization of heterogeneous grasslands by domestic herbivores: theory to management. Annales de Zootechnie 47, 321–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boinski, S, Garber, PA 2000. On the move. Chicago University Press, Chicago, IL, USA.Google Scholar
Boissy, A, Le Neindre, P 1997. Behavioral, cardiac and cortisol responses to brief peer separation and reunion in cattle. Physiology & Behaviour 61, 693–699.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boissy, A, Dumont, B 2002. Interactions between social and feeding motivations on the grazing behaviour of herbivores: sheep more easily split into subgroups with familiar peers. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 79, 233–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouissou, MF, Andrieu, S 1978. Etablissement des relations préférentielles chez les bovins domestiques. Behaviour 64, 148–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conradt, L, Roper, TJ 2005. Consensus decision making in animals. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 20, 449–456.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dickson, DP, Barr, GR, Wieckert, DA 1967. Social relationship of dairy cows in a feed lot. Behaviour 29, 195–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dove, H, Beilharz, RG, Black, JL 1974. Dominance patterns and positional behaviour of sheep in yards. Animal Production 19, 157–168.Google Scholar
Dumont, B, Boissy, A 1999. Relations sociales et comportement alimentaire au pâturage. Productions Animales 12, 3–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumont, B, Boissy, A 2000. Grazing behaviour of sheep in a situation of conflict between feeding and social motivations. Behavioral Processes 49, 131–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dumont, B, Boissy, A, Achard, C, Sibbald, AM, Erhard, HW 2005. Consistency of animal order in spontaneous group movements allows the measurement of leadership in a group of grazing heifers. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 95, 55–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erhard, HW, Fabrega, E, Stanworth, G, Elston, DA 2004. Assessing dominance in sheep in a competitive situation: level of motivation and test duration. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 85, 277–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Escos, J, Alados, CL, Boza, J 1993. Leadership in a domestic goats herd. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 38, 41–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Estes, RD 1974. Social organization of the African Bovidae. In The behaviour of ungulates and its relations to management (ed. V Geist and E Walther), pp. 166–205. IUCN, Morges, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Fischhoff, IR, Sundaresan, SR, Cordingley, J, Larkin, HM, Sellier, MJ, Rubenstein, DI 2007. Social relationships and reproductive state influence leadership roles in movements of plains zebra, Equus burchellii. Animal Behaviour 73, 825–831.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, A, Matthews, L 2001. The social behaviour of sheep. In Social behaviour in farm animals (ed. LJ Keeling and HW Gonyou), pp. 211–245. CAB International, Wallingford, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forkman, B, Boissy, A, Meunier-Salaün, MC, Canali, E, Jones, RB 2007. A critical review of fear tests used in cattle, pigs, sheep, poultry and horses. Physiology & Behaviour 92, 340–374.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gorecki, MT, Wojtowski, J 2004. Stability of milking order in goat over a long period. Archiv für Tierzucht 47, 203–208.Google Scholar
Greiveldinger, L, Veissier, I, Boissy, A 2007. Emotional experience in sheep: predictability of a sudden event lowers subsequent emotional responses. Physiology & Behaviour 92, 675–683.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hemelrijk, CK 1990. A matrix partial correlation test used in investigations of reciprocity and other social interaction patterns at group level. Journal of Theoretical Biology 143, 405–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howery, LD, Provenza, FD, Banner, RE, Scott, CB 1998. Social and environmental factors influence cattle distribution on rangeland. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 55, 231–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, WA 1984. Animal learning experience, life modes and cognitive style. Verhandlungen Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft 77, 45–56.Google Scholar
McHugh, TC 1958. Social behavior of the American buffalo (Bison bison bison). Zoologica 43, 1–40.Google Scholar
Meese, GB, Ewbank, R 1973. Exploratory behaviour and leadership in the domesticated pig. The British Veterinary Journal 129, 251–259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nituch, LA, Schaefer, JA, Maxwell, CD 2008. Fine-scale spatial organization reflects genetic structure in sheep. Ethology 114, 711–717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poole, JH, Moss, CJ 1989. Elephant mate searching: group dynamics and vocal and olfactory communication. Symposia of the Zoological Society of London 61, 111–125.Google Scholar
Ramseyer, A, Petit, O, Thierry, B 2009a. Patterns of group movements in juvenile domestic geese. Journal of Ethology (in press), DOI: 10.1007/s10164-008-0128-6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramseyer, A, Petit, O, Thierry, B 2009b. Decision-making in group departure of female domestic geese. Behaviour 146, 351–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramseyer, A, Boissy, A, Dumont, B, Thierry, B 2009c. Decision-making in group departures of sheep is a continuous process. Animal Behaviour (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rasa, OAE 1987. The dwarf mongoose: a study of behaviour and social structure in a small social carnivore. Advances in the Study of Behavior 17, 121–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Réale, D, Festa-Bianchet, M 2003. Predator-induced natural selection on temperament in bighorn ewes. Animal Behaviour 65, 463–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reinhardt, V 1983. Movement orders and leadership in a semi-wild cattle herd. Behaviour 83, 251–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reinhardt, V, Reinhardt, A 1981. Cohesive relationships in a cattle herd (Bos indicus). Behaviour 77, 121–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaller, GB 1963. The mountain gorilla. Chicago University Press, Chicago, IL, USA.Google Scholar
Scott, CB, Provenza, FD, Banner, RE 1995. Dietary habits and social interactions affect choice of feeding location by sheep. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 45, 225–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, CB, Banner, RE, Provenza, FD 1996. Observations of sheep foraging in familiar and unfamiliar environments: familiarity with the environment influences diet selection. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 49, 165–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sibbald, AM, Elston, DA, Smith, DJF, Erhard, HW 2005. A method for assessing the relative sociability of individuals within groups: an example with grazing sheep. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 91, 57–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sibbald, AM, Erhard, HW, Hooper, RJ, Dumont, B, Boissy, A 2006. A test for measuring individual variation in how far grazing animals will move away from a social group to feed. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 98, 89–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Syme, LA 1981. Social disruption and forced movement orders in sheep. Animal Behaviour 29, 283–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Villagra, A, Balasch, S, Peris, C, Torres, A, Fernandez, N 2007. Order of sheep entry into the milking parlour and its relationship with their milkability. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 108, 58–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Vries, H 1995. An improved test of linearity in dominance hierarchies containing unknown or tied relationships. Animal Behaviour 50, 1375–1389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waring, GH 1983. Horse behavior. Noyes Publication, Park Ridge, IL, USA.Google Scholar
Wells, SM, von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, B 1979. Social behaviour and relationships in a herd of Camargue horses. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 49, 363–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar