Comportamento de potros em diferentes ambientes

Abstract

Ethograms can be used to study behaviour allowing the evaluation of welfare in several situations. This work was performed to establish which environment would be the most suitable for foals, using an ethogram to observe and register behavioural occurrences. Observations were eye witnessed and registered with photographs and video recordings were used. Nine foals were used, and kept in paddocks with native pasture. Observations were performed to register their behaviours in environments that were never explored before, such as, paddocks with native pasture, a rodeo ring with sand and an arborized paddock. Observations occurred within one hour and thirty minutes in each environment, the observations began when the animals were taken to the new environments. In each of the environments in which the foals were exposed, different behaviors and frequencies occurred, in the environment of the sand lane most of the observed behaviors occurred in a general way, in the environment of the pasture picket the occurrences of the observed behaviors were more balanced and with a less frequent number of occurrences than in the other two, already the environment of the picket with trees the animals obtained an average value in the occurrences of their behaviors and it was in this environment where it was possible to observe social, natural and interaction behaviors in a more simultaneous way. Analysis of the ethograms allowed to determine that the best environment for adaptation and social interactions of foals was the arborized paddock.