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Bovine cattle from various parts of the world were studied in a physically and culturally homogeneous environment. The animals' approachability by a human in open pastures was associated with breed differences. Dairy breeds were more approachable than beef breed, while a comparison between European (Bos taurus) and humpbacked (B. indicus) stock yielded equivocal results. Raising dairy breeds for meat and raising beef breeds as milch cows had little overall effect on their approachability. Genetic affiliation was a much more powerful variable than treatment. Under ordinary rearing conditions within a particular ethnoenvironmental medium, it would appear that approachability is a relatively stable property of cattle breeds.

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Anim. Behav. Sci., Communal nursing (an adult female allowing the offspring of another conspecific female to suckle) is a relatively frequent behavior in water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). Fourteen lactating water buffalo cows and their nursing calves were observed at a Brazilan dairy after the cows had been milked. The two variables of greatest interest were solicitations of their own mothers and other cows by the calves, and acceptances of their own offspring and non-filial calves by the cows. Correlational analyses sugested three easily discriminable clusters of variables. Calves solicited and succeeded in suckling from their own mothers more often than they did their own mothers. They were more likely to try to suckle other cows if they were rejected by their own mothers. Cows that had a high probability of accepting their own offspring tended to accept nonfilial calves as well. Calves tended to maximize the total number rather than the probability of successful solicitations. Communal suckling was not reciprocal. Communal and filial suckling results from encounters between cows and calves performing under different motivational states.

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