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Can cattle visually discriminate between green and dead forages at a short distance while moving in the field?

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Abstract

Relatively little is known about the ability of ungulates to visually discriminate vegetation patches while foraging on grasslands despite extensive studies with man-made stimuli presented indoors. This study aimed to assess visual discrimination ability of cattle (Bos taurus) under conditions closer to the actual foraging situation. Twelve Japanese Black cows were afforded four successive opportunities to choose between green and dead forages presented as 25 × 25 cm patches 1, 2, or 3 m ahead while walking through a 25-m-long field area. Apparatuses for presenting the forages as visual stimuli were designed to minimize olfactory cues. The green forage differed from the dead forage in appearance (color and texture) and quality (digestible dry matter and crude protein). Cows preferred the green forage to the dead forage and were able to use the forages as visual cues to discriminate them. The proportion of green forage choices was 0.70–0.72 (different from the chance at P < 0.001), 0.57 (P < 0.05), and 0.53 (P ≥ 0.1) at the distances of 1, 2, and 3 m, respectively. The results indicate that the ability of ungulates to visually discriminate vegetation patches during foraging in grasslands would not be as high as that expected from the visual acuity reported in the previous indoor studies.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Yuki Oshige, Chihiro Shibata, Noriko Kusatake, Momoka Shimasaki, Misono Yamasaki, Sayaka Yamashita, Izumi Kawanami, Maho Tsuda, and Yuki Miyata for field and laboratory assistance, and Kiichi Fukuyama, Ikuo Kobayashi, Genki Ishigaki, and Koichiro Henmi for animal management. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS KAKENHI Grant number 16K08008; to M. Hirata).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Agriculture, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki, 889-2192, Japan

    Masahiko Hirata, Chie Arimoto, Natsumi Hattori & Hiroki Anzai

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  1. Masahiko Hirata
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  2. Chie Arimoto
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  3. Natsumi Hattori
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  4. Hiroki Anzai
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Correspondence to Masahiko Hirata.

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All procedures used in the study were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of the University of Miyazaki (#2017–004).

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Hirata, M., Arimoto, C., Hattori, N. et al. Can cattle visually discriminate between green and dead forages at a short distance while moving in the field?. Anim Cogn 22, 707–718 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-019-01268-z

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