Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
12th International Conference on Goats, Antalya, Türkiye, 25 - 30 Eylül 2016, ss.157
Freedom to express normal behavior is one of the five basic principles of animal welfare under the condition of human control. We have observed that goat kids keep trying on bipedal stance in different circumstances, therefore the hypothesis was put forward that bipedal stance and/or climbing behaviors are essential to perform for goat kids. Two experiments were planned to test these hypothesis. In the first trial, each 6 female and 7 male of Turkish Saanen kids were separated into 3 groups. The paddock was designed as a structured environment with roughage feeder, semi-automatic concentrate feeder, bunk, bridge, and wood block in the 1st group while the paddock of the 2nd group had no equipment except combined feeders which hanging on the fences of the paddock. The conditions of the paddock in the 3rd group were changed each other weeks from equipped to unequipped. In the 2nd trial, paddock condition for the 1st group was similar to first trial but the second group paddock was enclosed with an iron sheet to prevent bipedal stance behavior of the kids, and also to provide environmental isolation. There were 10 female and 10 male Turkish Saanen kids in each group in the 2nd trial. Bipedal stance behavior frequency was significantly lower in the structured group of the 1st trial (P≤0.05). On the other hand, climbing on the equipment frequency plus bipedal stance frequency of the groups were similar (P>0.05). In the 2nd trial although there was no installations to facilitate the climbing and/or bipedal stance in the paddock, the kids of the unstructured group were also performed bipedal stance behavior through leaning over slippery paddock wall or over their group mates, and the frequency of that behavior were found as 1/3 of the structured group animals. It was concluded that the bipedal stance and climbing behaviors are important elements of the behavioral repertoire of goat kids, and performing those behaviors could be limited by an unstructured environmental conditions.
Keywords: Animal Welfare,Turkish Saanen,Environmental enrichment,isolation