Allonursing in captive spiral horned antelopes, Tragelaphini

Bc. Veronika Ledvinová

Diplomová práce

Abstract:

Allonursing in Tragelaphini is frequently observed phenomenon, which might have far-reaching consequences on the body condition of nursing females living in captivity. One of the main goals of this Master's thesis was to record whether allonursing occurred in all observed Tragelaphini species. We assessed and discussed occurrence of this behaviour in relation to their social organization in the wild and different husbandry factors in zoological gardens. We evaluated the body condition of nursing females and discussed its relationship to allonursing. We used five available herds of different Tragelaphini species for our observation. Data were collected between 22nd May and 21st September 2017 in two zoological gardens in the Czech Republic - Zoo Praha (sitatunga and eastern bongo) and Zoo Dvůr Králové (common nyala, lesser kudu and common eland). The research was realized by method of direct observation. Every herd was observed for at least thirty five hours in total and we collected data about suckling and allosuckling. Body condition score of nursing females was assessed and recorded during every observation. Data were analyzed with the STATISTICA 13.2 software. We recorded 168 interactions of which 49.4 % were filial and 50.6 % non-filial. Allonursing occurred in all observed herds to some extent. None of the examined husbandry and social factors had significant influence on allonursing but we had available only limited sample of animals with a small variability between them. The body condition of nursing females was lower with longer duration of allonursing. We tend to opinion, that it has rather negative effect on the condition of allonursing females, but their attitude to this behaviour is very individual. We found, that some other factors have an important influence on this behaviour too, e.g. the age of the nursing females, the number of suckling calves or the calf sex.

Keywords

Tragelaphus eurycerus, allosuckling, social behaviour, body condition, Tragelaphus angasii, Tragelaphus imberbis, Tragelaphus spekii, Tragelaphus oryx

Jazyk práce: angličtina

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 27. 4. 2018

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedoucí: doc. Ing. Karolína Brandlová, Ph.D.

Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze

Fakulta tropického zemědělství

Magisterský studijní program / obor:
Tropické zemědělství / Wildlife Management in Tropics and Subtropics