Extensively kept animals for meat production have the right to live in a good
environment. Cattle (Bos Taurus) as social animals live in small herds in the
wild. When holding animals extensively new problems have arisen regarding
human – animal interactions. One welfare problem is to be able to come close
enough to the animals to investigate their health condition. The aim with this
study was to see if rank order influenced the animal’s behaviour and whether
or not it influenced the time to approach the test-person, how close the
animals came, when they paid attention to the test-person, their flight
distance, pace and if the test-person could touch the animals. This study
included eight groups of animals of varying group-size. The animals were
studied for five consecutive days in April 2006. Four animals in every group
were studied; two high ranked cows and two low ranked. Rank order
influenced in which pace the animals left the test-person. The pace was
calmer on day 5 than on day 1 (p=0,007, Anova) for the low ranked animals.
The flight distance was shorter on days 3, 4 and 5 for low ranked animals
when the results for days 1 and 2 compared with days 3 -5 (p=0,008,
Wilcoxon). There was a tendency that flight distance was shorter for the high
ranked animals (p=0,055). Between days 2 and 3, the low ranked animals
changed their behaviour. They significantly shortened their distance to the
test-person when comparing days 1 and 2 with 3-5 (p<0,001, Anova), time to
approach (p<0,001, Anova), the distance where they paid attention (p=0,024,
Anova) and if the test-person could touch the animals (p<0,001, Anova).
When testing the behaviours vs. group size effect there were positive
significant correlations within the high ranked cow groups. When group size
got bigger, the time to come close to the test-person got longer (p=0,003,
Linear regression=LR), the distance to the test-person got longer (p<0,001,
LR), distance when the animal paid attention to the test-person got longer
(p=0,001, LR) and there was also a tendency for a difference in which pace
the high ranked cows left the test-perso...
