Data from: Where do livestock guardian dogs go? Movement patterns of free-ranging Maremma sheepdogs
Data from: Where do livestock guardian dogs go? Movement patterns of free-ranging Maremma sheepdogs
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Date
2014-11-05
Citation
van Bommel L, Johnson CN. 2014. Data from: Where do livestock guardian dogs go? Movement patterns of free-ranging Maremma sheepdogs. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.pv048q7vAbstract
In many parts of the world, livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) are a relatively new and increasingly popular method for controlling the impact of wild predators on livestock. On large grazing properties in Australia, LGDs are often allowed to range freely over large areas, with minimal supervision by their owners. How they behave in this situation is mostly unknown. We fitted free-ranging Maremma sheepdogs with GPS tracking collars on three properties in Victoria, Australia; on two properties, four sheep were also fitted with GPS collars. We investigated how much time the Maremmas spent with their livestock, how far they moved outside the ranges of their stock, and tested whether they use their ranges sequentially, which is an effective way of maintaining a presence over a large area. The 95% kernel isopleth of the Maremmas ranged between 31 and 1161 ha, the 50% kernel isopleth ranged between 4 and 252 ha. Maremmas spent on average 90% of their time in sheep paddocks. Movements away from sheep occurred mostly at night, and were characterised by high-speed travel on relatively straight paths, similar to the change in activity at the edge of their range. Maremmas used different parts of their range sequentially, similar to sheep, and had a distinct early morning and late afternoon peak in activity. Our results show that while free-ranging LGDs spend the majority of their time with livestock, movements away from stock do occur. These movements could be important in allowing the dogs to maintain large territories, and could increase the effectiveness of livestock protection. Allowing LGDs to range freely can therefore be a useful management decision, but property size has to be large enough to accommodate the large areas that the dogs use.
Keywords
Epitheca canis,Ovis aries,Epitheca canis,Epitheca canis,Epitheca canis,animal tracking,Canis familiaris,Maremma sheepdogs,movement ecology,Ovis aries,sheep
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BibTex
@misc{001/1_pv048q7v,
title = {Data from: Where do livestock guardian dogs go? Movement patterns of free-ranging Maremma sheepdogs},
author = {van, Bommel, L and Johnson, CN},
year = {2014},
URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.pv048q7v},
doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.pv048q7v},
publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}RIS
TY - DATA ID - doi:10.5441/001/1.pv048q7v T1 - Data from: Where do livestock guardian dogs go? Movement patterns of free-ranging Maremma sheepdogs AU - van Bommel, Linda AU - Johnson, Chris N. Y1 - 2014/11/05 KW - Epitheca canis KW - animal movement KW - Ovis aries KW - Epitheca canis KW - Epitheca canis KW - Epitheca canis KW - animal tracking KW - Canis familiaris KW - Maremma sheepdogs KW - movement ecology KW - Ovis aries KW - sheep KW - Epitheca canis KW - Ovis aries KW - Epitheca canis KW - Epitheca canis KW - Epitheca canis PB - Movebank data repository UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.pv048q7v DO - doi:10.5441/001/1.pv048q7v ER -