How leadership could be used to manage domestic and wild ungulate herds

In increasingly anthropized landscapes, it is essential to understand animal behaviour, and especially the movement patterns of domestic and wild species to ensure their management and conservation. More specifically, cohabitation between human populations and wildlife could be improved through the study of habitat use by groups of animals in terms of decision-making processes and leadership phenomena. Landscape anthropization particularly affects ungulates due to the increasing rarity of available territories for the grazing of domestic herds or the reintroduction of wild ones. To avoid damage to agricultural and private land, most herbivores are managed by herders, or contained in enclosed areas. Although this conventional management method is efficient, fences are costly and restrictive and contribute to the loss of genetic diversity by isolating other wild animal populations. A new system of herd management would be to replace conventional fences with virtual fencing systems to manage species of interest. This innovative method consists of GPS systems with a warning and punishing device attached to the animal that is triggered when the animal approaches the virtual limits of allocated territory. The most consistent way to control a group using virtual fences would be to fit the device on the identified leaders, who influence overall group decisions. In ungulates, older dominant females are generally more likely to lead collective movements and be followed by other group members because of their greater knowledge of the surrounding environment, their higher physiological needs during calving and their numerous social relationships in the group. These individual characteristics make them key individuals in the organisation of social groups, so they could be targeted for the development of virtual fence systems and the management of wildlife and livestock.