FENCE LINE PACING IN FARMED RED DEER HINDS AT CALVING

The frequency, intensity and location offence line pacing were observe d daily, in four groups of six farmed red deer hinds, over a 3-week pe riod at calving. The groups were confined in neighbouring paddocks (50 00m(2) in area; two containing a wooden shelter) adjacent to deer yard s containing an observation hide. At 1100h, a person entered each padd ock to weigh, sex and tag newborn calves. Pacing (moving parallel to a nd within 0.5m of a fence line) was mainly at walking speed, and its f requency differed according to the time relative to parturition. it wa s recorded in 13.6 (+/- 1.09) per cent of observations during the peri od 2-4 to days before calving, increased to 27.6 (+/-. 1.9) per cent o n the day before birth and then declined to 4.6 (+/- 0.39) per cent fo r the period of 0-3 days after calving. Pacing relative to total movem ent was greater before (65.7%) than after (43.5%) parturition (SED 3.7 %, P < 0.001), indicating that it was not just a consequence of greate r activity before birth. The hinds were observed to be grouped togethe r rather than distributed randomly, but when some of the hinds were pa cing, groups were spread out over more quarters of the paddock than wh en none were pacing (P < 0.001). However there wets no definite sugges tion of avoidance of other deer. Within each group, most pacing occurr ed along certain fence lines, but no general pattern was observed Rega rdless of whether hinds had given birth or not, there were graded incr eases in pacing depending on the degree of human presence (not present <within deer yards < visible < in paddock; P < 0.05); and deer favoure d areas distant from human presence (P < 0.01). The findings in relati on to fence line pacing and location support suggestions that human in terference at calving should be minimized, but did not indicate which environmental features were responsible for this motivational drive.