1. Animal Behavior on the Range
Range Plants -- OBJ 2: PPT
K. Launchbaugh
USDA - ARS
Animal Behavior on the Range
Jen Peterson
Rangeland Principles (REM 151)
There are 16 slides in this presentation

2. Basis for Animal Behavior
What affects how animals behave:
1) Born with certain abilities:
Inherited abilities
Physical, Sensory & Physiological Abilities
2) Born knowing what to do:
Called “Instincts”
3) Learn how behave

3. Inherited Abilities Physical abilities affect what animals eat
Ability to eat cellulose
Capture and Consume Prey
Carnivore
Omnivore
Herbivore
Carnivore Omnivore Herbivore

4. Species Inherited Diet Preferences
Concentrate Feeder (browse)
Intermediate Feeder (forbs)
All Photos by K. Lauchbuagh
Roughage Feeder (grass)
Photos – K. Launchbaugh

5. Range Plants -- OBJ 2: PPT
Inherited Abilities
Physical abilities affect where animals eat
Percent Slope
Percent of Observations 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
80+
Cattle
Horses
Deer
Bighorn
Figure 10.2 Relationship of slope gradient to the percentage of observations of cattle, feral horses, deer, and bighorn sheep. (From Ganskopp and Vavra 1987)
There are 16 slides in this presentation

6. Inherited Abilities
Bailey et al. 2001; J. Anim. Sci.

7. Inherited Abilities
Brangus…..traveled further from water than…..Hereford or Angus
Brangus consumed different diets than Hereford or Angus
Winder et al. 1996

8. Inherited Behaviors - Instincts
Mammals know how to find milk and stay close to mother.
Basic ideas of what is cover & how to hide
Preference for salty foods
Preference for sweet… not sure
Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife

9. Inherited Behavior - Instincts
Behavioral characteristics can be inherited
Example = Guard Dogs vs Herding Dogs
K.Launchbaugh
USDA-ARS

10. Learned Behaviors + - Behavior Results from Consequences Behave

11. 4 Basic Learning Paradigms
“Good” Consequence
“Bad Consequence”
Add or Apply
Behavior Increases
(Positive Reinforcement)
Behavior Decreases
(Positive Punishment)
Remove
(Negative Punishment)
(Negative Reinforcement)

12. Young animals clearly learn what to eat avoid from their mother
Range Plants -- OBJ 2: PPT
Young animals clearly learn what to eat avoid from their mother
Animals are influenced by early life experience—mothers teach young how to eat.
Early life experiences are influential
There are 16 slides in this presentation

13. Young animals lean what and how to eat
Mom has the greatest influence on an animal’s food and habitat preferences. Learning from mom is efficient. Mom’s a good role model because she has been successful enough at foraging to grow up and reproduce. Mom likely knows the plants in the area where her offspring will be foraging.

14. Learning from Mother Exposure to Wheat 1 hr/day for 5 days 6 Weeks Age
34 Months Age
With Mother
wheat
wheat
Graze - No Wheat
Green conducted a study in which 6-week old lambs were exposed to wheat with their mothers for 1 hour per day for 5 days. Lambs were tested later to determine their intake of wheat. Lambs were not allowed to see wheat again until their test date. Lambs tested at 3 months of age virtually ate no wheat if they had no exposure to wheat or were exposed alone compared with lambs that were exposed with mom. Lambs that did not see wheat again until 34 months-of-age remembered what their mothers had taught them: wheat is a good food.
** Sheep figures from
Alone
wheat
wheat
No Wheat
wheat
Green et al. 1984

15. Learning from Mother Intake of Wheat (g/head/day)
Green conducted a study in which 6-week old lambs were exposed to wheat with their mothers for 1 hour per day for 5 days. Lambs were tested later to determine their intake of wheat. Lambs were not allowed to see wheat again until their test date. Lambs tested at 3 months of age virtually ate no wheat if they had no exposure to wheat or were exposed alone compared with lambs that were exposed with mom. Lambs that did not see wheat again until 34 months-of-age remembered what their mothers had taught them: wheat is a good food.
Age When Tested for Wheat Intake
Green et al. 1984

16. Learning from Mother Intake of Wheat (g/head/day)
Green conducted a study in which 6-week old lambs were exposed to wheat with their mothers for 1 hour per day for 5 days. Lambs were tested later to determine their intake of wheat. Lambs were not allowed to see wheat again until their test date. Lambs tested at 3 months of age virtually ate no wheat if they had no exposure to wheat or were exposed alone compared with lambs that were exposed with mom. Lambs that did not see wheat again until 34 months-of-age remembered what their mothers had taught them: wheat is a good food.
Age When Tested for Wheat Intake
Green et al. 1984

17. Early Life Experience is Influential
Preferences are formed

18. Early dietary experience
Range Plants -- OBJ 2: PPT
Early dietary experience
Goats - 6 weeks old
Experienced: raised on blackbrush range
Inexperienced: drylot fed alfalfa pellets
Weaned at 26 weeks
Week 28 - offered all goats blackbrush in pens
R. Distel
Which group do you think ate more?
Distel & Provenza 1991
There are 16 slides in this presentation

19. Early dietary experience
Range Plants -- OBJ 2: PPT
Early dietary experience
Distel & Provenza 1991
There are 16 slides in this presentation

20. Animals must learn how to eat
Range Plants -- OBJ 2: PPT
Animals must learn how to eat
Click Video or Link
As animals learn to eat they develop foraging skills.
There are 16 slides in this presentation

21. Animals learn based on consequences+ -
Behavior
Behave
Consequences
Behavior

22. Animals learn based on consequences
Eat
Plant (taste)
Digestive
Feedback + -
Preference
Aversion
Things that we like that do not always have good flavor; coffee, red wine, beer, strong cheese. But you learn to like the flavor because it provides positive feedback. If a food is paired with positive feedback, you may learn to like it.

23. Animals learn based on consequences
Eat
Plant (taste)
Digestive
Feedback + -
Preference
Aversion
Things that we like that do not always have good flavor; coffee, red wine, beer, strong cheese. But you learn to like the flavor because it provides positive feedback. If a food is paired with positive feedback, you may learn to like it.

24. How to Create Conditioned Aversions?
Mountain- Mahogany
Nausea (LiCl)
No Feedback (empty capsule)

25. How to Create Conditioned Aversions?
Range Plants -- OBJ 2: PPT
How to Create Conditioned Aversions?
Control
Averted (LiCl 3g/day)
Before the treatments were applied, they all ate mountain mahogany the same. After being dosed with lithium chloride, the group that had a negative feedback (nausea), their consumption of the mountain mahogany dropped off substantially.
Lambs quit eating mountain mahogany when consumption was followed by nausea.
There are 16 slides in this presentation

26. Why don’t livestock eat sagebrush?
Intake of Ration
(g/day/kg BW)
For example, sagebrush is considered an unpalatable plant but not a toxic plant. Sagebrush contains terpenes that cause food aversions. They make animals sick of they eat too much sagebrush. Animals familiar with sagebrush, don’t refuse to eat sagebrush, they simply limit intake of sagebrush.
Sagebrush Levels in Ration (%)

27. Animals learn based on consequences
Eat
Plant (taste)
Digestive
Feedback + -
Preference
Aversion
Things that we like that do not always have good flavor; coffee, red wine, beer, strong cheese. But you learn to like the flavor because it provides positive feedback. If a food is paired with positive feedback, you may learn to like it.

28. Sheep “learn” to like straw
Click Video or Link

29. How to create a Conditioned Preference?
Straw
Feedback starch
Control water

30. Energy Increases Palatability
Intake of straw, g
The amount of starch in the starch solution was increased during the study from 1% to 10% of the lambs’ daily energy requirement. Lambs preferred the flavor pair with calories regardless whether the flavor was apple or maple. The preference for one flavor over the other increased as the trial progressed due to increasing amounts of energy used in the trial and increase exposure to the flavors.
Day

31. How to get sheep to eat more sagebrush?
Supplemental nutrients increase intake of sagebrush not only in pens but in the field as well.

32. Nutrient - Toxin Interactions
Intake of Sagebrush, g
Intake of sagebrush more than doubled for both goats and sheep when they are supplemented with nutrients (energy and protein). The animal has to detoxify the terpene in the sagebrush, so the supplement actually allows them to eat more sagebrush.

33. Use of Sagebrush by Sheep
Supplemented
Sagebrush, % Scans
When ewes were supplemented with nutrients, they increased the percent of time they browsed sagebrush. Ewes were offered a choice of a high-energy (50% corn and 50% beet pulp) and a high- protein (85% alfalfa and 15% soybean meal) supplement. They were offered the two supplements free choice for 15 min/day.
Supplementing animals with nutrients may be a way to decrease unpalatable forage and allow other forages to grow.
The main point of these data are that we need to teach them how to eat these foods, not starve them until they are forced to eat the target plant.
Unsupplemented
Day

34. Creating “Designer” livestock
Select animals that naturally possess the desired ingestive characteristics
Breed animals with these abilities
Prepare animals with prescribed dietary experiences
Offer animals nutritional or pharmaceutical resources to aid in digestion or detoxification

35. For More information: www.behave.net