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Effects of social behaviour on patch utilization by sheep in a complex vegetation mosaic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2017

A. M. Sibbald ,
S. P. Oom ,
R. J. Hooper  and
R. Anderson
A. M. Sibbald*
Affiliation:
Macaulay Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH, United Kingdom
S. P. Oom
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa
R. J. Hooper
Affiliation:
Macaulay Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH, United Kingdom
R. Anderson
Affiliation:
Macaulay Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH, United Kingdom
*
Email: angela.sibbald@macaulay.ac.uk
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Extract

In heterogeneous environments, such as complex vegetation mosaics, there is likely to be a dynamic interaction between the spatial pattern of the vegetation and the distribution of the animals grazing there. Preferences for particular vegetation types will influence where animals choose to feed and, in turn, changes to the vegetation caused by damage from grazing and trampling will affect the dynamics of the mosaic. Social interactions, amongst highly social grazers such as sheep, can also affect the distribution of the animals, depending on the relationship between the dimensions of vegetation patches and the characteristic spacing of the animals. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between patch utilization and patch size for small groups of Scottish Blackface sheep foraging in a natural heather (Calluna vulgaris ) and grass mosaic.

Type
Theatre Presentations
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 2005 , 2005 , pp. 63
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2005

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References

Cochran, W.G. 1954. Some methods for strengthening the common chi-square tests. Biometrics 10: 417–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oom, S.P. 2003. Spatial pattern and process in the fragmentation of heather moorland. PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar