Reintroduction of takhi, Equus ferus przewalskii, to Hustai National Park, Mongolia: time budget and synchrony of activity pre- and post-release

Boyd, Lee E.; Bandi, Namkhai

doi:10.1016/s0168-1591(02)00088-6

Cited by 55 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The increase of the time spent foraging in the experimental group can of course be explained by the availability of hay in the experimental paddock and may explain the observed decrease of the time spent stand resting as also observed by Duncan (1980) and Boyd and Bandi (2002). The lower time spent in locomotion and in alert standing in the experimental group could be a sign of a lowered level of stress in this group.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 51%

Foraging opportunity: a crucial criterion for horse welfare?

Benhajali

Richard‐Yris

Ezzaouïa³

et al. 2009

Animal

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This study aimed at determining the effect of the increase of foraging opportunities on the behaviour and welfare of breeding mares housed in individual boxes but allowed outside 6 h a day in a bare paddock. One hundred Arab breeding mares were divided into two groups of 50 according to the treatment and allowed outside in two bare paddocks at the same density (115 mare/ha) where water and shelter were provided. The treatment consisted in providing the opportunity to forage on hay. Twenty-minute animal focal samplings and scan samplings were used to determine the time budget of the mares during the period from 0900 to 1500 h and study their social behaviour. A total of 300 focal sampling (6000 min), 3300 individual scan sampling (6000 min) and 62 group observations (1240 min) corresponding to the 100 mares were recorded. Non-parametric tests were used to analyse data. Results showed that experimental mares spent more time feeding (65.12% 6 2.40% v. 29.75% 6 2.45%, P , 0.01) and less time in locomotion (11.70% 6 1.31% v. 23.56% 6 1.34%, P , 0.01), stand resting (11.76% 6 2.57% v. 27.52% 6 2.62%, P , 0.01) and alert standing (5.23% 6 1.2% v. 14.71% 6 1.23%, P , 0.01). There was more bonding among experimental mares than control ones (26 v. 14, P , 0.05). Experimental mares showed more positive social interactions (P , 0.01) and less aggression (P , 0.01). These results suggest that giving densely housed mares foraging opportunities improves their welfare.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 51%

Foraging opportunity: a crucial criterion for horse welfare?

Benhajali

Richard‐Yris

Ezzaouïa³

et al. 2009

Animal

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“…on pasture) was highly dependent on T a . Although we could not distinguish between activity due to grazing or foraging and other LAs, according to previous studies in horses (Duncan, 1985;Boyd and Bandi, 2002;Lamoot and Hoffmann, 2004) it is reasonable to assume that most of the LA recorded can be attributed to feeding behaviour. Even though horses were kept on paddock with access to an outdoor stable during winter in our study, their annual LA pattern agrees well with observations described for wild herbivores such as the Przewalski horse Arnold et al, 2006;Berger et al, 2006) and roe deer (Berger et al, 2002).…”

Section: Seasonal Changes In Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 77%

Adaptation strategies to seasonal changes in environmental conditions of a domesticated horse breed, the Shetland pony (Equus ferus caballus)

Brinkmann

Gerken

Riek

2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYRecent results suggest that the wild ancestor of the horse, the Przewalski horse, exhibits signs of a hypometabolism. However, there are speculations that domestic animals lost the ability to reduce energy expenditure during food shortage and adverse environmental conditions. Therefore, we investigated physiological and behavioural strategies employed by a robust domesticated horse breed, the Shetland pony, over the course of a year under temperate conditions by measuring ambient temperature (T a ), subcutaneous temperature (T s ), locomotor activity (LA), lying time, resting heart rate, body mass and body condition score. Ten animals were kept on pasture in summer and in open stables in winter; further, in winter the animals were allocated into one control and one feed-restricted group of five animals each to simulate natural seasonal food shortage. The annual course of the mean daily T s of all horses showed distinct fluctuations from a mean of 35.6±0.5°C, with higher variations in summer than in winter. Diurnal amplitudes in T s were highest (P<0.001) in April (12.6°C) and lowest in January (4.0°C), with a nadir around dawn and a peak around mid-day. The feed-restricted group had a significantly lower daily T s compared with the control group on cold winter days, with T a values below 0°C. Mean annual heart rate and LA followed T a closely. Heart rate of the feedrestricted animals significantly decreased from a mean of 52.8±8. ). Our results show that Shetland ponies exhibit signs of a winter hypometabolism indicated by reduced heart rate and T s . Thus, domesticated horses seem to have maintained the capacity for seasonal adaptation to environmental conditions by seasonal fluctuations in their metabolic rate.

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“…Why, then, did the lactating donkeys not further increase their grazing time? We hypothesise that the highly synchronous foraging behaviour that is manifest in herds of equids (Boyd and Bandi 2002) acts as a behavioural limit to a further increase in grazing time by the lactating mares.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grazing behaviour of free-ranging donkeys and Shetland ponies in different reproductive states

Lamoot

Vandenberghe

Bauwens³

et al. 2004

J Ethol

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We investigated how free-ranging mares of two species of equids (donkeys and Shetland ponies) modify their foraging behaviour to meet the increased nutritional requirements induced by lactation. We initially hypothesised that lactating mares would graze for a longer time and/ or graze faster than non-lactating (dry) mares. The grazing behaviour of free-ranging animals, foraging in two lowproductive dune areas, was recorded during 1 year. Results show that in both species lactating animals did not spend more time grazing than non-lactating mares. However, lactating animals took more bites, and therefore achieved a higher bite rate than dry mares. Several factors affected the differences between lactating and non-lactating animals. Lactating mares took more bites only in grassy and rough vegetations and they did this only in patches with a short sward height. In addition, lactating mares took more bites of grasses only and not of forbs or woody plants. We conclude that the extra grazing effort of the lactating animals was not distributed randomly. Lactating mares invested their extra grazing effort principally towards those items that are the most grazed by the equids in general. We propose some hypotheses to explain why lactating mares increase their bite rate instead of augmenting the time spent grazing.

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Reintroduction of takhi, Equus ferus przewalskii, to Hustai National Park, Mongolia: time budget and synchrony of activity pre- and post-release

Cited by 55 publications

References 22 publications

Foraging opportunity: a crucial criterion for horse welfare?

Foraging opportunity: a crucial criterion for horse welfare?

Adaptation strategies to seasonal changes in environmental conditions of a domesticated horse breed, the Shetland pony (Equus ferus caballus)

Grazing behaviour of free-ranging donkeys and Shetland ponies in different reproductive states

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