Social behaviour of captive American bison

Bc. Karolína Francová

Master's thesis

Abstract:

This master thesis reviewed the issue of the American bison (Bison bison) history, husbandry and behaviour, with special attention to its social behaviour. The practical part was focused on observation of the bison herds in the individual breeding facilities and also on estimation and evaluation of the bison hair loss degree, which was very briefly described in Vervaecke et al. (2005). The aims of the thesis were to determine and evaluate the dominance hierarchies in the individual bison herds and to examine the connection between social rank and moulting. The research was carried out in the period from February 2016 to October 2016. In total, four American bison (Bison bison) herds were monitored in Ranch Gallop (n = 10), Červená ranch (n = 10), Brno zoo (n = 4) and Prague zoo (n = 6) during 180 hours. In total, 272 agonistic interactions between adult individuals were scored and used to determine the dominance ranks in the individual breeding facilities. Strong linear hierarchies were revealed in Ranch Gallop, Červená and Prague zoo, compared to Brno zoo where the perfect linear hierarchy was found. It was detected, that the degree of hair loss was significantly higher in summer and in autumn (p < 0.05). Social ranks were positively correlated with the degree of hair loss; higher ranking animals lost its hair earlier than lower ranking individuals. It was not proved that nursing females used higher interaction types than non-nursing ones (p > 0.05). This research also represents the first analysis of the difference in the degree of hair loss between individual breeding facilities. A significant difference between zoos and ranches was found (p < 0.05); in both zoological gardens, the animals had a significantly higher degree of hair loss compared to the animals in ranches which could be caused by the altitude in which the individual breeding facilities were located, by the ambient temperature and also by the differences in animals nutrition.

Keywords

dominance rank, hair loss, agonistic behaviour, Bison bison, hierarchy, moulting

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 25. 4. 2017

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Tamara Fedorova, Ph.D.
• Reader: Edita Horová, Ing., externi

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme / field:
Tropical Agriculture / Animal and Food Sciences in Tropics and Subtropics