Wild Grazing Research Articles

Habitat use by indigenous grazing ungulates in relation to sward structure and veld condition

The objective of the study was to examine the relationships between the habitat requirements of different wild ungulate species, sward structure and veld condition. Veld condition score was correlated with sward height: habitats with high condition scores were dominated by tall grass species, whereas habitats with low scores were dominated by short grasses. This was because grass species that decrease as a result of heavy grazing ('decreaser’ species) are typically tall, whereas those that are promoted by grazing ('increaser’ species) are typically short. Grazers that require tall grasses (mountain zebra and red hartebeest) favoured habitat with high condition scores, whereas short grass grazers (black wildebeest) favoured range with low condition scores. The patch‐selective grazing habits of the short grass grazers tended to create short grass lawns dominated by increaser grasses. The relevance of veld condition assessment for areas managed to support wild grazing ungulates is discussed.

Foraging Ecology of Bison in Aspen Boreal Habitats

Studies on sever81 wild and domestic ungulates suggest that large grazers attain higher maximum forage intake rates but require relatively higher forage biomass to do so. In this study, forage intake rates and feeding times of Nortb America’s largest wild grazer, the bison (l?&o#~ b&on), were related to forage biomass during summer and autumn in aspen boreal forest babitats. Irrespective of season, maximum feeding rates of 68 g/min declined by 50% as forage biomass was reduced to 780 kg/ha. This reduction was due primarily to smaller bite sizes. However, bison compensated by increasing cropping bite rates to more than 60 bites/min on heavily grazed swards. Grazing times increased from 9 h/day in summer to 11 h/day in autumn, offsetting sligbt decreases in average foraging efficiency. During summer, a grater proportion of grazing occurred at night. Upland meadows were preferred habitats for grazing despite relatively low pasture biomass and potential dry matter intake rates.

Grazing Lawns: On Domesticated and Wild Grazers

Grazing Lawns: On Domesticated and Wild Grazers

A review of faecal analysis techniques for determining the diet of wild grazing herbivores

Abstract The technique of faecal analysis has become increasingly popular for determining the diet of wild grazing herbivores. This paper reviews the methods used in collecting, storing, preparing and analysing the faeces and interpreting the results of the analysis; recommendations are given at each stage of the procedure. It is concluded that faecal analysis is a valuable method that can be usefully used under those conditions most likely to confront the wildlife biologist, viz. the wild, free‐ranging, grazing herbivore inhabiting a relatively natural ecosystem.

Influence of Grazing on the Composition of Themeda Triandra Grassland, East Africa

As modern man settled in the grasslands, cultivated them, replaced the wild animals with domestic animals, and altered the frequency and intensity of burning, changes in the grassland vegetation and soil must have occurred. Grazing pressure on the many forage species probably changed because of differences in food preferences and in grazing intensity. Greater human populations in recent years suggest that frequency of burning may have increased but overgrazing has reduced fuel and fire intensity. Although these are recently changed conditions which are known in a general way, knowledge of their long-term effects on the vegetation and soil is more speculative. Numbers and kinds of wild animals were described by early travellers whereas the grassland composition was barely mentioned. Replacement of wild animals by domestic livestock on East African grasslands came before the advent of detailed ecological investigations; therefore original interrelationships between animals and their grassland habitat are subject to considerable conjecture. This study was conceived in the belief that East Africa contained areas where the relative influence of wild animals and domestic livestock on their grassland home could be determined. Ideally, adjacent areas were required where wild grazing animals were abundant and where domestic animals had seldom grazed, such as occur at the edges of tsetse fly infestations and in certain national game parks. Four such locations were selected for detailed study of botanical species composition and soil conditions to determine the effects of grazing by different animal species and to evaluate the influence of grazing intensity. Several difficulties were encountered during the study. First, animal numbers, hence grazing pressure, had to be evaluated by indirect means as movements of nomadic livestock and migrating game animals were poorly known. Second, sampling was possible only at one time near the end of the growing season so that early growth and early growing species were not sampled nor were the vegetational differences in years of more or less rainfall than 1958-59. Third, climatic parameters for the areas are subject to question because the available records were of short duration and some distance away. These unknowns prevent unequivocal interpretations but, on the other hand, the grasslands are composed of perennial plants which tend to ameliorate short-term variations due to climate and grazing. Vegetational changes in response to climatic variation need further study.

Historical Highlights of Grazing in the Central and Southern Great Plains

Historically the Great Plains region is an ancient pasture. The Jura-Triassic and Cretaceous beds hold the fossils of giant plant-eating dinosaurs and the fossil trees and herbs on which these ravenous animals grazed. Elevation of the Rocky Mountains ended the reign of dinosaurs and their disagreeable kind. Ancestors of both mammals and grasses probably appeared about this time. Some authorities believe that grasses are the descendants of Cretaceous sedges. The evolution of grasses in the Great Plains region apparently coincided with the evolution of the horse, camel and many other grass-eating mammals which originated in North America after the elevation of the Rockies. There were no cowboys or rangemen in those days as man did not show up until the early Ice Age. The ancient land bridge across the present Bering Sea is believed to have been the pathway over which grass-eating mammals and other animals crossed between America and Asia. Many of their descendants, which include the bighorn sheep, Rocky Mountain goats, and others, found their way southward along the Old North Trail up the Yukon Valley. From there their course led over the low pass into the McKenzie Valley and southward to the Great Plains. While the North American Indians of the PreColumbian era had domesticated dogs and turkeys, they also hunted the wild grazing mammals like buffalo, deer and elk. Around the kitchen middens of ancient Yuma and Folsom man are found the cracked bones of horses, camels, bison, pigs and Ice Age elephants. It is not known why, but camels, horses and elephants disappeared from North America in the late Ice Age. The only members of these groups found when the white man arrived were bison, javelinas in Cent r a 1 and North America and llamas and alpacas in South America. European horses were introduced to horseless North America by Ponce de Leon to Florida in 1513 and Cortez to Mexico in 1515. Around 1540 the descendants of these early horses which had escaped the Spaniards and ran wild were being tamed and ridden by Indians in Mexico. By 1760 horses were being used by the Indians from the Rockies to the eastern prairies and hardwood savannahs. Prairie and Plains Indians were hunting on the descendants of the horses brought over by the conquistadors 100 years before they came into active contact with white settlers from eastern United States. Except for the very southernmost tip, the Great Plains region was the last American frontier settled by AngloSaxons. Mounted Great Plains Indians became some of the best cavalry men and hunters of all time. The first Europeans to cross the Southern Great Plains were the Spaniards, Cabeza de Vaca and Doriantes, and the negro, Esteban. After having been shipwrecked near the mouth of the

小林派出部に於ける放牧馬の榮養保持に就て 採草食の蛋白組成と榮養補給劑

小林派出部に於ける放牧馬の榮養保持に就て 採草食の蛋白組成と榮養補給劑