A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Science in Resource Conservation Biology. Johannesburg, 29 May 2017. / An understanding of animal foraging behaviour is key to proper management
strategies that ensure the survival and species persistence within nature
reserves. Here the foraging behaviour of ruminant (hartebeest and wildebeest)
and non-ruminant (zebra) grazers were observed and compared between two
areas with distinctively different vegetation structure, the natural vegetation
(NL) and previously cultivated land (PCL), in Telperion and Ezemvelo Nature
Reserves (TENR). Natural vegetation was dominated by tall grass of low
greenness with patches of short to very short grass, while the PCL was
dominated by areas of very short to short grass (grazing lawns) with patches of
medium to tall grass. Step rate (SR) and foraging time spent per feeding station
(FTFS) were used as indices of foraging behaviour. I also measured the
characteristics of the grass sward (grass height and greenness) grazed on by the
three species. Both ruminants had high SR and low FTFS. Despite having similar
SR and FTFS, ruminants grazed on grass of different height. Hartebeest preferred
tall grass with low greenness content (0-10%), while wildebeest preferred short
to very short grass and were significantly selective of areas with relative high
greenness (11-50%) on PCL, more so than any other species. Compared to
ruminant grazers the non-ruminant (zebra) had low SR and high FTFS and like
hartebeest they grazed on medium to tall grass of very low greenness content (0
10%). This study did not reveal any difference in feeding behaviour within
species between the two study sites. The finding of this study confirms that
ruminant and non-ruminant species have different foraging behaviour, and
habitat heterogeneity is necessary for the reserve to support different grazing
species.
Key words: digestive physiology, feeding station, step rate, wildebeest,
hartebeest, zebra / GR2018
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/23727 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Hamunyela, Ndamonenghenda |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (62 leaves), application/pdf |
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