Relationships between nutrition and foraging behavior of free-ranging sheep and goats.

摘要: Goats generally tolerate dry season forage conditions in northeastern Brazil's tropical deciduous woodland better than sheep do, but the mechanisms underlying and goat response to wet are not well understood. We evaluated aspects of nutrition behavior free-ranging goats this improve our understanding these mechanisms. Body weight changes, dietary botanical chemical composition, daily activities were measured for that foraged during four defined periods a year. Vegetation available animals was also measured. Although there much less vegetation season, body weights crude protein content increased decreased season. During year, changes sheep, possibly those goats, positively related their diets. Foraging times greater browse inversely content. Sheep may have longer because they spending more time searching through large quantity low-quality items with relatively higher levels protein.