Dietary habits and social interactions affect choice of feeding location by sheep

Scott, Cody B.; Provenza, Frederick D.; Banner, Roger E.

doi:10.1016/0168-1591(95)00605-r

Cited by 51 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Some individuals have already been observed to display preferences for reliable positions in a group of adult zebu cows (Reinhardt, 1983) and in a group of 15 Charolais heifers of the same age (Dumont et al, 2005). The motivation to move to a new feeding site may conflict with the motivation to stay close to other group members (Scott et al, 1995;Dumont and Boissy, 2000;Boissy and Dumont, 2002). Less sociable animals are more likely to move away from other animals: Sibbald et al (2006) have shown that sheep which were more often the closest neighbour of other group members were also those less willing to move away from their social group.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When group members contrast in experience and needs, they can constitute subgroups that differ in their foraging choices (Scott et al, 1995;Fischhoff et al, 2007), thus influencing the decision-making process. This could slow down the decision process or give different weight to some individuals in the group.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To collectively exploit the resources of their environment, animals make trade-offs between the motivation to stay with their social peers and the motivation to move away from the group for exploiting preferred food patches (Scott et al, 1995 and1996;Dumont and Boissy, 2000;Boissy and Dumont, 2002;Sibbald et al, 2006). Although conflicts of interest tend to disperse individuals, group-living animals usually succeed in reaching consensus decisions and travelling together (Conradt and Roper, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such processes remain largely unexplored. It has however been shown that social factors interact with food preferences, vegetation availability and knowledge of the foraging environment to determine the distribution of sheep and cattle on grasslands and rangelands (Scott et al, 1995 and1996;Howery et al, 1998). Lack of data is especially prejudicial for the management of grazing distribution in domestic herbivores, as herds often use heterogeneous grasslands unevenly, which can lead to resource degradation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Ramseyer

Boissy

Thierry

et al. 2009

Animal

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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 5 0.438; ewe-lambs: P 5 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 5 0.040 and 0.023, respectively), as well as did ewe-lambs with a high spatial independency index ( P 5 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 5 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.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

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

Ramseyer

Boissy

Thierry

et al. 2009

Animal

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“…Attention has notably been paid to the existence of particular individuals behaving as leaders, or as informed individuals, and to their having a greater effect on collective decision-making than other group members (Couzin et al 2005;King et al 2008;Stueckle & Zinner 2008;Conradt et al 2009). Differences in the needs or preferences of one or a few individuals for a resource have also been shown to affect the outcome of collective decisions, without involving hierarchical interactions (Scott et al 1995;Biro et al 2006;Fischhoff et al 2007). But other differences are likely to modulate collective decision-making: over the past few years, the concepts of personality, temperament and coping style have all received increasing attention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality and collective decision-making in foraging herbivores

et al. 2009

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The mechanisms by which group-living animals collectively exploit resources, and the role of individuals in group decisions, are central issues for understanding animal distribution patterns. We investigated the extent to which boldness and shyness affect the distribution of social herbivores across vegetation patches, using sheep as a model species. Using an experimental and a theoretical approach, we show that collective choices emerge through the nonlinear dynamics of interactions between individuals, at both short and long distances. Within a range of parameter values derived from the observation of homogeneous groups of each behavioural type, we propose a simple mechanism whereby the same interaction rules can result in different patterns of distribution across patches for bold and shy individuals. We present a mathematical model based on behavioural rules derived from experiments, in which crowding and conspecific attraction affect the probability of entering or leaving patches. Variation in the strength of social attraction is sufficient to account for differences in spatial distribution across patches. The model predicts that resource fragmentation more strongly affects the distribution patterns of shy groups, and suggests that the presence of both bold and shy individuals within groups would result in more flexible behaviour at the population level.

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Multi-agent Based Simulation of Animal Food Selective Behavior in a Pastoral System

Henane¹,

Saïd²,

Hadouaj³

et al. 2010

Agent and Multi-Agent Systems: Technologies and Applications

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Dietary habits and social interactions affect choice of feeding location by sheep

Cited by 51 publications

References 27 publications

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

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

Personality and collective decision-making in foraging herbivores

Multi-agent Based Simulation of Animal Food Selective Behavior in a Pastoral System

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