Relationship between feeding behavior and social dominance in a small herd of goats.
1991
Matsuzawa Y. | Hagiya K.
The purpose of the study was to analyze the relationship between feeding behavior and dominance in goats as a basic research for the improvement of the rearing system of domestic animals. The observation area was approximately 5000 centiare and was enclosed with a wire fence. The herd comprised nine male and two female Saanen goats. Feeding behavior of goats from seven troughs was video-taped for 30 minutes at feeding time in the evening. The dominant goats spent more time for eating and less for moving than did the low-ranking goats. It was more often observed that goats high in the hierarchy ate singly and goats low did together. Frequency of the single eating was positively correlated with dominance order. It was rare for two goats distant from each other in dominance to eat together. The greater difference in dominance, the less joint eating took place. The number of pair in which male and female ate together was significantly greater than the chance expectation. It is considered that the dominance order agrees with the order in access to feed in herd with a stable dominance-subordinate relationship.
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