Reproductive and Maternal Behavior of Livestock - Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals - page 160

delivery, attentiveness, and concomitant care to guarantee greatest possible
survival of the young ( Buddenberg et al., 1986 ). Included here are separation
behavior, shelter seeking, nest building, parturition, cleaning and stimulating
the neonate to suckle, and establishment of the maternal

offspring bond.
Those unique species-specific behaviors which have evolved in relation to
birth and care of the neonate are essential for species survival ( Gonyou and
Stookey, 1987 ). In many cases these same behaviors also represent valued
production traits in domestic livestock. Proper expression of such behavior
is, however, under threat in modern livestock systems where genetic selec-
tion for extensive conditions is favored ( Simm et al., 1996 ). Here, attempts
to increase productivity place unprecedented demands upon mothering ability
while procedures which congregate dams within unnatural environments can
lead to undue stress and failure of bonding between mother and young
( Edwards, 1983 ).
In ungulates, the mother young relationship was described by Walther

(1965) who distinguished between “follower”- and “hider”-types.
Aggregation behavior and breeding synchrony are often associated with
follower-types ( Estes, 1976; Singh et al., 2010 ), allowing for greatest off-
spring survival in combination with maternal and group defense. Separation
behavior is frequently observed in hider-types, where females disperse from
the herd to give birth unaccompanied ( Bowyer et al., 1999; Langbein and
Raasch, 2000; Rettie and Messier, 2001 ) to reduce predation and intraspe-
cific aggression ( Lent, 1974 ). Additionally, it has been suggested that in fol-
lowers, mother offspring acoustic recognition is mutual ( Torriani et al.,

2006 ) whereas it is unidirectional in hiders (Marchant-Forde et al., 2002;
Torriani et al., 2006 ). None the less, follower

hider categorization should
be regarded as flexible ( Ralls et al., 1986 ) as some species employ either
type depending upon environmental cues.

REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR IN CATTLE
Cattle were domesticated relatively recently in terms of human prehistory.
Prior to this, they were mainly located within groups, or herds, on open
savannah and grassland range country, although some antecedents, such as
the Gaur, might also be found in woodland fringes. Studies with feral cattle
and conserved “wild” herds indicate that these groups were essentially matri-
archal, comprising adult females and young offspring. Breeding tended to be
dictated by seasons, with calving and breeding occurring during more favor-
able nutritional periods, usually in spring. Adult males would spend much of
the year either solitary or in bachelor groups, joining the female herd when
females were sexually active. Domesticated cattle breed all year round,
although some seasonal influences are detectable in the cyclicity of Bos indi-
cus cattle. For example, females of Bos indicus breeds show a preference for
long-day breeding ( Randel, 1984 ) with lowered cyclicity being evident