Home > Horse Care > Large Animal Handling and Behavior > Compare the flight patterns
Spring, 2010
Compare the flight patterns of the newborn calf, old bull, yearling steer
As defined by Temple Grandin in Humane Livestock Handling: Understanding Livestock Behavior and Building Facilities for Healthier Animals, a flight pattern is: “The point at which (the animal) can no longer tolerate the approach of a person or other animal and moves away. When the predator is spotted, grazing animals turn and face the potential threat” (33). Grandin goes on to provide a rationale for our needing to be aware of both this definition and its implementation, adding “”When grazing animals learn to trust a calm and respectful handler, the tendency to turn and face the handler will be decreased as well as the flight zone.” Knowing this is to both the animal and the human’s benefit because it reduces stress when there is this type of interaction. At the same time, a knowledge of flight pattern behavior decreases the possibility of there being any kind of animal or human-related accident.
It’s also important to be aware of the specific types of behaviors of various species, for example, cattle behave differently than sheep. And it’s important to be aware of the specific types of behaviors of breeds, for example, exotic cattle breeds have differing movement behaviors than do more domestic breeds. And there is that age thing. Newborn calves, old bulls, and yearling steers have differing flight patterns. Newborn calves want to be, and should be, kept with their mothers. Grandin writes “don’t let cows or ewes get in the habit of running or those babies will be left behind” (48). If they straggle, (and they might) “resist the urge to chase them.” Grandin further suggests approaching the stragglers “at an angle that gradually increases pressure on their flight zone,” adding that one should “approach the animals just at one side of their heads and move just past the point of balance at the shoulder of the last straggler.” Much of the above applies to the movement of yearling steers, who also might be considered stragglers. Grandin further stresses that it’s important not to push the stragglers into the dominant animals in the middle of the herd where these subordinates could be bunted or gored and become upset” (45).
Bulls are dangerous animals, and considerable forethought should be given when one is even thinking about moving them around. Grandin emphasizes this and specifically says that “bulls are considered to be the most dangerous of domestic animals. Their size and unpredictability alone should make handlers err on the side of caution. Bulls make up only 2 percent of the cattle population but are the number one cause of fatalities among humans who handle livestock” (28).
I became curious about the behavior habits/flight
patterns of bulls because of an incident when I was younger. I was working
on a diary farm and we had to move a bull. No one was hurt, but the bull
got in with the cows and so was shot. I do think this could have been
prevented. Jack Albright, in a November, 200 issue of Hoard’s Dairyman
provided me with some additional information about bull behavior, noting
that “behavioral activities include “threat challenges, territorial
activities, female seeking, and female nudging.” Furthermore, a
bull making a direct threat will be “head on with head lowered and
shoulders hunched, neck curved to the side of the potential object of
the aggression. Pawing with forefeet, sending dirt flying behind or over
the back, as well as rubbing or horning the ground are also components
of the threat display.” He adds “If in response to the threat
display, the recipient animal advances with the head down in flight mode,
a short fight with head butting or heads or horns (may) ensue.”
Horse Behavior: Books consulted
Compare the flight patterns