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Performance of sheep in simple spatial memory tasks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2018

G. R. Edwards ,
J. A. Newman ,
A. J. Parsons  and
J. R. Krebs
G. R. Edwards
Affiliation:
NERC Unit of Ecology and Behaviour, Department of Zoology, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3PS
J. A. Newman
Affiliation:
NERC Unit of Ecology and Behaviour, Department of Zoology, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3PS
A. J. Parsons
Affiliation:
Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, North Wyke, Okehampton, Devon EX20 2SB
J. R. Krebs
Affiliation:
NERC Unit of Ecology and Behaviour, Department of Zoology, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3PS
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Extract

Plant species or vegetation characteristics (e.g. sward height) are often distributed in patches within a background of continuous vegetation. Grazing animals exploit this spatial heterogeneity by concentrating their foraging in patches that are of preferred species or in patches that offer high rates of intake (Bazely, 1988). However, little is known of the mechanisms or individual behaviours that animals use to accomplish this preferential patch use. One hypothesis proposed to account for the preferential patch use is that animals remember information about the spatial distribution of the patches they encounter and use this information on subsequent foraging bouts to increase the rate at which they encounter preferred food patches (Bell, 1991). In this study, we tested whether sheep could remember the spatial location of patches in simple and complex environments or whether they needed continually to sample to know what was located in each area.

Type
Poster abstracts
Information
BSAP Occasional Publication , Volume 20: Animal Choices , 1997 , pp. 86 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 1997

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References

Bazely, D. R. 1988. Foraging behaviour of sheep {Ovis aries L.) grazing swards of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). Ph.D. thesis, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
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