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

Evaluating virtual fencing as a tool to manage beef cattle for rotational grazing across multiple years

Virtual fencing (VF) is a technology drawing attention for the management of grazing livestock under open-range conditions. This study investigated the use of VF collars to facilitate summer rotational grazing of beef cattle heifers and cow-calf pairs. Specifically, we evaluated the ability of cattle to initially learn and adapt to VF technology, and thereafter control their temporal and spatial use of pastures during the grazing season. Two years of rotational grazing were conducted using Nofence VF collars, with cattle also fitted with leg-mounted activity sensors. The first year involved yearling heifers naïve to VF, with the second year using the same animals as first-calf cows with calves. Heifers adapted to VF boundaries in 5-7 days, with an electrical pulse to audio cue ratio (E:A) of 17.9 % (±18.4) during training, decreasing to 5.2 % (±11.2) while rotational grazing. One year later, cows with prior VF experience had an E:A ratio of 1.6 % (±1.1 %) and 2.2 % (±1.6 %) during re-training and grazing, respectively. Cattle remained within VF boundaries more than 99 % of the time, though learning patterns varied by animal cohorts (age/reproductive groups), and among individuals. No associations were found between the number of VF stimuli and animal characteristics or performance. Animals with greater movement, as exhibited by step counts, experienced greater audio cues (rs ≥ +0.087), and as heifers, greater electrical pulses (rs = +0.21). Stocking rate had a direct positive association with the frequency of audio cues (rs = +0.36) and electrical pulses (rs = +0.25) for cows, but not heifers. We conclude that cattle can readily learn and be compliant with VF boundaries, and that VF technology can be used to facilitate rotational grazing through the remote movement of cattle among virtual paddocks. Overall, these findings support VF's potential to enhance cattle management flexibility and control forage use, thereby providing an innovative 'fenceless' tool to balance ongoing pasture use with grassland sustainability.

Sexually differentiated decision-making involves faster recruitment in the early stages for the Tibetan antelopes Pantholops hodgsonii

Group living is widespread across diverse taxa, and the mechanisms underlying collective decision-making in contexts of variable role division are critical for understanding the dynamics of group stability. While studies on collective behavior in small animals such as fish and insects are well-established, similar research on large wild animals remains challenging due to the limited availability of sufficient and systematic field data. Here, we aimed to explore the collective decision-making pattern and its sexual difference for the dimorphic Tibetan antelopes Pantholops hodgsonii (chiru) in Xizang Autonomous Region, China, by analyzing individual leadership distribution, as well as the joining process, considering factors such as calving stages and joining ranks. The distinct correlations of decision participants' ratio with group size and decision duration underscore the trade-off between accuracy and speed in decision-making. Male antelopes display a more democratic decision-making pattern, while females exhibit more prompt responses after calving at an early stage. This study uncovers a partially shared decision-making strategy among Tibetan antelopes, suggesting flexible self-organization in group decision processes aligned with animal life cycle progression.

Leadership amongst pigs when faced with a novel situation

Leadership is a risky behaviour that can impact individuals and groups. Leaders, i.e. individuals who perform or initiate a task while other individuals in the group follow, have been studied in different contexts, but there is still a lack of understanding on the role of individual characteristics that may predispose them to become leaders, such as dominance and personality. In particular, the characteristics of leaders in domestic animal populations has been poorly examined. We studied leadership within 32 groups of young pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus, n = 366 individuals). Leadership was assessed during a group-based fear test (Human Approach Test) which was repeated three times. The first individual per group to touch the person was identified as leader. We assessed repeatability of leadership and characteristics of leaders as compared to followers. Leadership was marginally repeatable, with 6 out of 26 groups having a consistent single leader across all tests. Females had odds 4.13 times greater than males of being a leader, while there was no effect of body weight (a proxy of dominance) or coping style on leadership. The results indicate a similarity with wild populations, in which females lead the herd even though the males, which are superior in body weight, are often dominant.

Management of Social Behaviour of Domestic Yaks in Manang, Nepal: An Etho-Ethnographic Study

Herdsmen use different techniques, as per varying geographies and cultures, to keep the cohesion within herds and avoid animals getting lost or predated. However, there is no study on the social behaviour of yaks and herdsmen management practices. Therefore, this ethology study was initiated by ethnographic inquiries. In Manang, the success of the shepherd is dictated by his personal attribute of 'Khula man' or open-heartedness. This attribute refers to good intentions and emotions such as empathy, which allow the shepherd to focus more on others than on himself. This cultural way of assessing the skills required to become a successful and knowledgeable shepherd guided us to study the effect of cultural values on the herd's social behaviour. We collected data from two herds living at the same settlement (Yak kharka, 4100 m altitude, Nepal) by equipping them with loggers. One of the herdsmen used the tether rope while the other one did not. Moreover, the Thaku herd had a more proactive shepherd than the Phurba one. In each herd, 17 animals were equipped with one Actigraph wgt3x-BT to measure activity using an accelerometer and spatial associations using a proximity recorder. One of the herds was equipped with GPS (N = 11) as well. Using GPS locations and activity, we showed that the two herds were cohesive and synchronised their activities but the Thaku herd (tether rope herd) was more cohesive than the Phurba herd based on the Actigraph signals. The shepherds also have personal knowledge of the social relationships of individual animals in their herds and use these relationships to keep the group cohesive and to manage cattle well.

Glucocorticoids of European Bison in Relation to Their Status: Age, Dominance, Social Centrality and Leadership

Stress is the body's response to cope with the environment and generally better survive unless too much chronic stress persists. While some studies suggest that it would be more stressful to be the dominant individual of the group, others support the opposite hypothesis. Several variables can actually affect this relationship, or even cancel it. This study therefore aims to make the link between social status and the basal level of stress of 14 wild European bison (Bison bonasus, L. 1758) living together. We collected faeces and measured the faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM). We showed that FGM is linked to different variables of social status of European bison, specifically age, dominance rank, eigenvector centrality but also to interactions between the variables. Preferential leaders in bison, i.e., the older and more dominant individuals which are more central ones, are less stressed compared to other group members. Measurement of such variables could thus be a valuable tool to follow and improve the conservation of species by collecting data on FGM and other social variables and adapt group composition or environmental conditions (e.g., supplement in food) according to the FGM concentration of herd individuals.