1. Introduction
Free-ranging ungulates forage in landscapes where food quality and quantity vary in Ž
. both space and time Senft et al., 1987 . The ability to track changes in forage resources
should allow large herbivores to graze more efficiently because they would know where Ž
. and what to graze Bailey et al., 1996 . Individual learning and social learning are the
Ž most probable mechanisms for livestock to obtain this critical information Provenza et
. Ž
. al., 1988 . Instinct genetics could be used to transfer forage resource information from
one generation to another, but individual and social learning should be favored more on Ž
rangelands due to spatial and temporal variation in forage quantity and quality Provenza .
and Balph, 1988 . Several studies have shown that cattle individually can learn the location of food and
Ž then adjust their foraging patterns to take advantage of this knowledge Bailey et al.,
. 1989a; Laca, 1998; Howery et al., 2000 . Cattle also can associate locations with the
Ž .
quantity and quality of food found there Bailey et al., 1989b; Bailey and Sims, 1998 . Potentially, cattle could readily learn the location of feeding areas from other animals.
Ž .
For example, Howery et al. 1998 observed that domestic calves learn where to graze from their dam. In feral cattle, the integrity of social groups is high, and individuals
Ž .
regularly interact with herd members Lazo, 1994 . If an animal located an area with high food resources, this information could be transferred to other members of the social
group. Familiarity, social ranking and experience may affect the efficiency with which
Ž .
information is exchanged Mosley, 1999 , but few studies have specifically examined Ž
. the effect of social facilitation on cattle during foraging. Howery et al. 1999 showed
that pen-mates transferred foraging information to other animals more efficiently than Ž
. non-pen-mates. In another study, Sato 1982 suggested that movements of a cattle herd
during grazing was directed by active movement of cattle with high-social ranking or the independent movement of low-ranking cattle.
The role of previous foraging experience on the ability of cattle to transfer foraging Ž .
information has received little examination. The objectives of this study were: 1 to Ž
. determine if cattle followers could learn the location of a new source of food directly
Ž . Ž
from a social model and 2 to determine if the foraging experiences i.e., fixed, .
variable, or no-experience of the social models would affect the rate of learning by followers.
2. Methods
Kategori