The Behavior of Ungulates and its Relation to Management.

The precocial nature of the ungulate infant and the active care provided by the mother in most representatives of this order results in a period of intense reciprocal stimulation between mother and infant following birth. While no single sensory input is a requisite for the elicitation of maternal behavior, the movements, odor and vocalizations of neonates all act to stimulate normal maternal responses. Mothers, in turn, use visual, tactual and vocal stimuli to elicit and direct neonatal activities. This phase of intense interaction is called the post-partum period. It varies in length from less than 1 hour to more than 10, depending upon the species. Most ungulate species clearly fall into one of two categories with regard to the type of mother-infant relationship occurring after the post-partum period. These two types are referred to as the 'hiders' and the 'followers'. We are indebted to Fritz Walther for the early development of this concept. The hiders are primarily species using forested habitats or small species able to take advantage of low cover in relatively open habitats. Most cervid species fall into the hider category, as do the gazelles and many antelope species. At the end of the post-partum phase the mother and infant in hider species enter into a phase during which the two are separated and out of contact for long periods of time. During this hiding period nursing and care sessions may be as infrequent as two or three per day in some species. Infants of hider species tend to act independently in the selection of hiding sites, but are dependent, at least initially, upon their mothers for initiation of activity periods. The hiding behavior complex functions as a strategy for avoiding predation and as a means of gradually introducing the infant into a closed social group. Follower type species include the equids, most large bovines, sheep and related genera, the muskox and the caribou. These species tend to be associated with grassland or tundra habitats. Many of the follower types are characterized by great seasonal mobility. In these species there is no ontogenetic phase corresponding to the hiding period. Mother and infant maintain close spatial relationships and frequent communication following the post-partum period. This strategy provides for protection against predation by maternal defense and permits extensive movements of mother and young in large aggregations during early stages of infancy. In the genus Capra and perhaps also in the mouflon and some other alpine species the hiding period is either short or absent and associated behavior is weakly expressed. Some evidence suggests intraspecific variation in this regard. The prone response is an infantile behavior pattern associated primarily with hider species. This withdrawal response may be elicited by certain maternal behavior patterns or it may occur as a result of alarming stimuli. This response is expressed weakly or for a shorter period after birth in some follower species. Following responses are part of the behavioral repertoire of all ungulate infants. This behavior first occurs as a general tendency to follow any moving object of an appropriate size range. The activity is associated with an imprinting process which may eventually result in only the mother or mother-object eliciting its occurrence. A generalized following response continues to function in s t ress situations in later ontogeny, especially among follower species.