The potential cost of discrimination in diet selection by grazing herbivores

摘要：

While the general patterns of diet selection by grazing herbivores have been frequently discussed in the literature, very little is known on the effect of the local abundance and assemblage of plant families on their subsequent defoliation by the animals.In diverse pastures, where several plant species coexist on a small spatial scale,diet selection will partly depend on the discrimination abilities of the animals.The ability of sheep to discriminate between ryegrass and white clover has been demonstrated using an indoor test (Edwards et al.,1997).Here, we propose a sward‐based method to study the selection of white clover by cattle and sheep in a pluri‐specific grassland, according to whether it can be easily distinguished within the sward or not.This leads us to discuss the potential cost of discrimination processes in the diet selection of grazing herbivores.

关键词： ruminant clover discrimination selection

作者: Cécile Ginane Bertrand Dumont Anne Farruggia Laurent Lanore Pascal Carrère

作者单位: INRA UR1213 Unité de Recherches sur les Herbivores,F-63122 Saint Genès Champanelle,France INRA UR874 Unité de Recherche surlEcosystème Prairial,234 A v.du Brèzet,F-63100 Clermont-Ferrand,Fr

会议类型: 国际会议

会议名称: 2008世界草地与草原大会

会议地点: 呼和浩特

会议语种:英文

在线出版日期: 2008-06-29（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）