Time budgets and 24 h temporal patterns variation of activities in stabled dairy dromedary camels

Abstract

Time budgets can be used to determine the amount of time camels allocate to different behaviors throughout the day and can be a useful tool to evaluate animals’ management systems. This work investigated time budgets and temporal dynamics of dairy camels’ activities in intensively farms. Nine clinically healthy dairy camels (11.7 ± 1.9 years, 437.8 ± 12.0 kg and 72.6 ± 7.1 DIM) housed in a loose stall barn were monitored for 6 consecutive days. An ethogram of 16 behavioral activities was developed. Behavioral observations were continuously recorded. The mean duration for major behavioral activities was calculated to obtain the time-budget. Temporal pattern distribution of each activity was evaluated and their relationships were analyzed using Spearman correlations. Results showed that camels spent most of their time in a standing position feeding. Rumination remained high from late evening until early morning and reached maximum levels around 4:00. During 24 h, camels were standing and lying for 54% and 38% of their time, respectively. Data revealed that main behavioral activities expressed were feeding (35.5%) followed by rumination (24.5%). Walking activity remained low along the day and represented only 2% of the total time budget of stabled camels. Coprophagy was detected in subordinate camels which spent 10.3 ± 1.7 min/day searching fresh feces. These results suggested that time budgets and daily patterns of behavioral activities should be taken in consideration to improve management conditions in stabled dairy camels.