Cb. Scott et al., OBSERVATIONS OF SHEEP FORAGING IN FAMILIAR AND UNFAMILIAR ENVIRONMENTS - FAMILIARITY WITH THE ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCES DIET SELECTION, Applied animal behaviour science, 49(2), 1996, pp. 165-171
We determined if familiarity with a pasture decreased the importance o
f social interactions in food selection and choice of foraging locatio
n by lambs with different dietary preferences. Lambs in three treatmen
ts (18 lambs per treatment) were reared separately for 2 months and ex
posed daily to a 1-ha experimental pasture (Treatment 1), to a 0.5-ha
pasture with similar forage species to those in the 1-ha experimental
pasture (Treatment 2), or reared in confinement and not allowed to gra
ze (Treatment 3). Half of the lambs in each treatment were fed mile (S
orghum bicolor) and half were fed wheat (Triticum aestivum) daily for
2 months to condition preferences for mile and wheat, respectively. Du
ring testing, subgroups of three lambs that were conditioned to prefer
mile and three that were conditioned to prefer wheat (three subgroups
per treatment) were exposed simultaneously to the 1-ha experimental p
asture to determine if social influences affected food selection when
mile and wheat were placed at opposite ends of the pasture (100 m apar
t). We found: (1) subgroups of lambs familiar with the pasture typical
ly consumed different foods, depending on whether they preferred mile
or wheat; (2) subgroups of lambs naive to the pasture typically forage
d together on the same food; (3) preferences for either mile or wheat
persisted for animals familiar with the experimental pasture, whereas
lambs naive to the pasture acquired preferences for both foods. Thus,
these results suggest social factors can override food preferences in
a novel environment, but food preferences may be more influential in f
ood selection in a familiar environment.