scholarly journals Socio-cultural, Herd Structure and Reproductive Practices of Pastoral Cattle Producers in Adamawa State, Nigeria

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Cattle ◽  
Herd Structure

Herd Structure, Leadership, Dominance and Site Attachment of the Camel, Camelus Dromedarius

Behaviour ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 118 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 103-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norbert Schulte ◽  
Hans Klingel
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Small Group ◽  
Camelus Dromedarius ◽  
Individual Preferences ◽  
Partner Preferences ◽  
Site Attachment ◽  
Dominance Relationships ◽  
Herd Structure ◽  
Four Levels

AbstractSocial structure and relationships in a herd of captive camels were studied in Kenya. During day and night the herd split up irrespective of kinship. Partner preferences existed only in those camels who had previously been kept in a small group separated from the herd. Dominance relationships are anonymous with four levels: a) dominant breeding bulls, b) females and bachelors, c) subadults, and d) calves. No stable leadership was observed, but individual preferences in the walking order existed when the camels left and entered the enclosure. During the night most camels showed an amazing attachment to a particular resting site; in a new boma they used corresponding sites. During moon nights activity was greatly increased.

scholarly journals Proximity Interactions in a Permanently Housed Dairy Herd: Network Structure, Consistency, and Individual Differences

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kareemah Chopra ◽  
Holly R. Hodges ◽  
Zoe E. Barker ◽  
Jorge A. Vázquez Diosdado ◽  
Jonathan R. Amory ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Variation ◽  
Temporal Stability ◽  
Interaction Network ◽  
Dairy Herd ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Local Positioning System ◽  
Functional Zones ◽  
Herd Structure ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Feeding Zone

Understanding the herd structure of housed dairy cows has the potential to reveal preferential interactions, detect changes in behavior indicative of illness, and optimize farm management regimes. This study investigated the structure and consistency of the proximity interaction network of a permanently housed commercial dairy herd throughout October 2014, using data collected from a wireless local positioning system. Herd-level networks were determined from sustained proximity interactions (pairs of cows continuously within three meters for 60 s or longer), and assessed for social differentiation, temporal stability, and the influence of individual-level characteristics such as lameness, parity, and days in milk. We determined the level of inter-individual variation in proximity interactions across the full barn housing, and for specific functional zones within it (feeding, non-feeding). The observed networks were highly connected and temporally varied, with significant preferential assortment, and inter-individual variation in daily interactions in the non-feeding zone. We found no clear social assortment by lameness, parity, or days in milk. Our study demonstrates the potential benefits of automated tracking technology to monitor the proximity interactions of individual animals within large, commercially relevant groups of livestock.

scholarly journals Herd structure in Late Cretaceous polar dinosaurs: A remarkable new dinosaur tracksite, Denali National Park, Alaska, USA

Geology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (8) ◽  
pp. 719-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony R. Fiorillo ◽  
Stephen T. Hasiotis ◽  
Yoshitsugu Kobayashi
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
National Park ◽  
Herd Structure ◽  
Denali National Park

scholarly journals Instance Segmentation with Mask R-CNN Applied to Loose-Housed Dairy Cows in a Multi-Camera Setting

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 2402
Author(s):  
Jennifer Salau ◽  
Joachim Krieter
Keyword(s):  
Dairy Cows ◽  
Transfer Learning ◽  
Automated Analysis ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Human Observer ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Herd Structure ◽  
Bounding Boxes ◽  
Technical Basis

With increasing herd sizes came an enhanced requirement for automated systems to support the farmers in the monitoring of the health and welfare status of their livestock. Cattle are a highly sociable species, and the herd structure has important impact on the animal welfare. As the behaviour of the animals and their social interactions can be influenced by the presence of a human observer, a camera based system that automatically detects the animals would be beneficial to analyse dairy cattle herd activity. In the present study, eight surveillance cameras were mounted above the barn area of a group of thirty-six lactating Holstein Friesian dairy cows at the Chamber of Agriculture in Futterkamp in Northern Germany. With Mask R-CNN, a state-of-the-art model of convolutional neural networks was trained to determine pixel level segmentation masks for the cows in the video material. The model was pre-trained on the Microsoft common objects in the context data set, and transfer learning was carried out on annotated image material from the recordings as training data set. In addition, the relationship between the size of the used training data set and the performance on the model after transfer learning was analysed. The trained model achieved averaged precision (Intersection over union, IOU = 0.5) 91% and 85% for the detection of bounding boxes and segmentation masks of the cows, respectively, thereby laying a solid technical basis for an automated analysis of herd activity and the use of resources in loose-housing.

Sexual dimorphism and paleoecology in Teleoceras, a North American Miocene rhinoceros

Paleobiology ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-706 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred J. Mead
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Dimorphism ◽  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Age Classes ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Femur Length ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Adult Age ◽  
Rhinoceros Unicornis ◽  
Hippopotamus Amphibius ◽  
Herd Structure

Sexual dimorphism is documented in 35 articulated adult skeletons, 24 females, and 11 males, of the Miocene rhinoceros Teleoceras major from Ashfall Fossil Beds, Nebraska. Morphometric analysis of 51 cranial, mandibular, forelimb, and hindlimb characters reveals larger male mean values in 50 of the 51 measurements, of which 23 are significantly different (p ≤ 0.01). The most clearly dimorphic feature is the i2 diameter. The dimorphism evident in additional mandibular and cranial characters is conservative when compared with the dimorphism present in the fore- and hindlimbs. Non-overlapping male and female ranges are recorded for humerus length, radius length, radius proximal width, and femur length, with corresponding dimorphism ratios (DR = male ÷ female) of 1.11, 1.12, 1.11, and 1.10. Maximum male longbone lengths exceed minimum female lengths by an average of 24% (20–29%). Developmental maturity is apparently asynchronous in T. major, with fusion of longbone epiphyses delayed a minimum of two relative adult age classes in males. Significant sexual dimorphism is evident in the radius (DR = 1.34) and femur (DR = 1.19) cross-sectional areas. Estimates of body mass suggest a DR value between 1.13 and 1.23. The cranial, mandibular, and body-size dimorphism in T. major approaches that seen in the extant rhinoceroses Ceratotherium simum and Rhinoceros unicornis. However, the apparent herd structure and breeding-age sex ratio for the Ashfall herd suggests a behavioral ecology for T. major different from that of extant rhinoceroses. Teleoceras was likely a herding polygynous species ecologically more similar to extant Hippopotamus amphibius of Africa.

Prevalence of bovine tuberculosis in pastoral cattle herds in the Oromia region, southern Ethiopia

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1081-1087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Balako Gumi ◽  
Esther Schelling ◽  
Rebuma Firdessa ◽  
Abraham Aseffa ◽  
Rea Tschopp ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bovine Tuberculosis ◽  
Southern Ethiopia ◽  
Pastoral Cattle ◽  
Cattle Herds
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