Journal of Animal Science, Vol 75, Issue 11 2892-2898, Copyright © 1997 by American Society of Animal Science

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Discrimination between shepherds by lambs reared under artificial conditions

X. Boivin, R. Nowak, G. Despres, H. Tournadre and P. Le Neindre
LAHM, INRA Theix, St Genes Champanelle, France.

We studied the ability of 32 lambs reared artificially in groups of four to discriminate between their shepherd and an unknown shepherd. Half of the lambs were bottle fed in isolation by one shepherd during the first 3 wk. The other half was fed alternately by three shepherds. Lambs had no visual contact with humans for the next 3 wk. Lambs were weaned at 6 wk of age and reared together with the minimum human contact necessary for rearing management. Lambs were tested at 3, 6, and 14 wk of age, investigating the effect of the rearing conditions on the response to isolation and to reunion with the known or an unknown shepherd. During tests, lambs were observed 1) in isolation for 1 min, 2) in the presence of a shepherd who entered and squatted at one end of the pen for 1 min, trying to touch the lambs if they approached, 3) again in isolation for 1 min. Early rearing management (one vs three shepherds) had no significant effect on any criteria studied. Lambs vocalized and moved less when in the presence of the shepherd than when isolated. They vocalized less, moved less, approached more quickly, and interacted more with the known than with an unknown shepherd. The difference persisted after 3 wk spent without visual human contact. However, no difference was evident at 14 wk of age. The effect of shepherd knowledge is clearly demonstrated by this experiment after an intensive early period of contact.