Nursing and feeding behaviour of confined red deer(cervus elaphus scoticus)in the Mexican highlands∗

Abstract

Red deer (Cervus elaphus scoticus) hinds were confined before parturition in 20 × 30 m earth-floored pens and offered freshly cut legumegrass mixed pasture (Experiment 1) or lucerne hay (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, four hinds were placed in a single pen; all parturitions took place within 24 h. Animals were monitored by a single observer for 24-h periods twice weekly for 10 weeks. Number of daily suckling episodes increased with age while their duration decreased. Consumption of forage started around the fourth week and, by weaning, calves had spent an average of 105.5 min eating forage and 44.2 min ruminating daily, compared with hinds, which consumed forage for 6.05 h and ruminated for 1.77 h per day. In Experiment 2, 24 hinds and their calves were confined in four pens for 12 weeks. Four observers each monitored the activities of a randomly chosen calf from 0800 to 1330 h and from 1430 to 2000 h. Activities were analysed as proportions of total activity using linear and quadratic regressions. Time spent suckling increased until Day 26 (110 seconds, in a total of three bouts), decreasing to 13 seconds (in a total of eight bouts) by Day 73. Most of the hinds (70%) allonursed (nursing a calf other than its own), some as soon as 2 days post-partum. Forage consumption by the calves decreased from 37.1 s at 8 days to 12.6 and 17.1 s at 59 and 73 days, respectively. The regression equation for time spent suckling (proportion of total activity) against calf age (days) showed a quadratic effect: y = 0.76 -0.026 day + 0.00023 day 2 (R 2 = 0.797), whilst time spent eating forage showed an opposite quadratic trend: y = -0.17 + 0.28 day -0.0002 day 2 (R 2 = 0.761).

Pre-orbital gland opening: Part of sucking behavior in red deer (Cervus elaphus) calves1

“…Sucking behavior observed in the present study corresponded to that previously described in red deer calves (Clutton-Brock et al, 1982). We found similar sucking bout duration decreasing with age as in studies on red deer (Bubenik, 1965;Vasquéz et al, 2004;Drábková et al, 2008). The rate of sucking attempts rejected by the dam and proportion of sucking bouts terminated by the mother has been not reported in the literature for red deer, but they were comparable to our earlier observations on the same population (seasons 2003 to 2007, unpublished data) and also to those found in fallow or white-tailed deer (Gauthier and Barrette, 1985).…”

Selfish Pups: Weaning Conflict and Milk Theft in Free-Ranging Dogs

“…The duration of time allocated to a behaviour is a good estimate of investment in the behaviour in terms of time activity budgets of individuals, and we considered the time spent in nursing as a measure of investment by the mothers and allomothers. Though the use of nursing duration as a measure of investment by mothers has been debated, it continues to be used as an indirect measurement of maternal investment [ 27 , 28 ]. Moreover, since we compared nursing/ suckling durations for the same set of individuals over time, this could be considered as a reliable marker for changing interest of the mothers and pups in suckling.…”

“…The duration of time allocated to a behaviour is a good estimate of investment in the behaviour in terms of time activity budgets of individuals, and we considered the time spent in suckling as a measure of investment by the mothers and allomothers. Though the use of suckling duration as a measure of investment by mothers has been debated, it continues to be used as an indirect measurement of maternal investment [17,18].…”