Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, North Wyke Research Station, Okehampton, United Kingdom
The development of an understanding of the factors affecting the foraging behavior of free-ranging domestic ruminants domestic ruminants and other herbivores requires precise measurements of grazing behavior. A microcomputer based animal behavior recording system has been developed. The jaw movements of free-ranging herbivores are sensed using a condcutive rubber nose band. The signal from the nose-band sensor is digitized and saved on a MS-DOS format PCMCIA RAM card as an 8 bit integer 20 times a second (20Hz). This allows periods of eating, idling and ruminating to be subsequently identified, and different types of jaw movements (i.e. mastication chews and prehension bites) to be identified and counted using a Microsoft Windows program called "Graze". The system also records wether or not the animal is lying, standing or walking using one mercury tip switch suspended beneath the animal and one attached to one of its legs. The system can record data for periods of up to 25.5 hours.
The Graze program will be demonstrated during the poster session.