Genetics and Behavior During Handling, Restraint, and Herding - Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals - page 137

not confounded by the experience of being trained for riding. The survey
was conducted at a commercial feedlot in Colorado. A total of 1500 cattle
were temperament-ranked (with the rating scale described previously) while
restrained in a hydraulic squeeze chute for vaccinations. The cattle originated
from many different ranches. Seventy-two per cent were European

British
crosses and the rest were zebu crosses from Mexico. To prevent bias, tem-
perament rankings were collected by one person standing to the side and
behind the squeeze chute. From this position he was unable to see the hair
whorl. A second observer recorded hair whorl location from a position at the
back of the squeeze chute. The hair whorl location was recorded before each
animal entered the squeeze chute. We found that cattle with hair whorls
above the eyes became significantly (p

3

0.001) more agitated during
restraint than cattle with hair whorls below the eyes ( Grandin et al., 1995a ).
To our knowledge, this study was the first published evidence of a relation-
ship between behavior and hair whorls.
Randle (1998) assessed the relationship between hair whorl position and
temperament in 57 Bos taurus cattle in a post hoc investigation. Individuals
were scored on 19 measures of personality, 14 of which related to tempera-
ment. Individuals with mid-whorls exhibited significantly greater flight dis-
tances to an unfamiliar human than did individuals with low whorls
(P , 0.01). Cattle with high hair whorls above the eyes are more vigilant,
excitable, and reactive (Bueno et al., 2012; Florcke et al., 2012; Martins,
et al., 2009 ). Lanier et al. (2000) report that extensively raised beef cattle
with high hair whorls are more likely to become agitated due to loud inter-
mittent noise in an auction ring. Florcke et al. (2012) found mother cows
with high hair whorls became aware of a strange approaching vehicle at a
greater distance. In semi feral Konik horses, the height of a single hair whorl
had no effect on startle response, but horses with elongated double hair
whorls took significantly longer to approach a novel object ( Gorecka et al.,
2007 ). Possibly feral Konik horses have fewer variations in hair whorl height
than more heterogeneous groups of domestic horses. Hair whorl patterns are
highly heritable in horses ( Gorecka et al., 2006 ), and Holstein cattle ( Shirley
et al., 2006 ).
The beef cattle in our first study had a higher percentage of hair whorls
above the eyes compared to Holstein cows at a large commercial dairy
( Grandin et al., 1995a ; Tanner et al., 1994 ). Holsteins are much less reactive
to novelty and aversive stimuli than beef cattle and there was no effect of
hair whorl position on behavior ( Shirley et al., 2006 ). This is probably due
to less variation in both genetics and hair whorl positions in Holsteins. In
commercial feedlots Holsteins are less likely to become excited during han-
dling compared to beef cattle. In 2011, the second author collected hair
whorl data on over 600 beef cattle in Nebraska. A small percentage of these
cattle had high whorls compared to the data collected by Grandin et al.
(1995a) . This may be due to 15 years of beef industry programs designed to

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