Age-Related Differences in Nursing Behavior Among American Bison Cows (Bison bison)
Green WC. 1986. Age-Related Differences in Nursing Behavior Among American Bison Cows (Bison bison). Journal of Mammalogy. 67(4):739-741
Bison cows of different ages were compared through two measures of nursing behavior: a) the amount of time cows spend nursing their calves, as estimated by duration and frequency of bouts, and b} the percent of bouts terminated by the calf. The relevance of the second measure is that calves that end bouts appear to be satiated. In contrast, when mothers end bouts, calves usually follow and repeatedly attempt to continue suckling. Twelve cow-calf pairs were observed throughout the second and third months of the calves' lives during 1983. Only female calves were included, in order to eliminate possible variation related to calf sex. The subjects were members of a free-ranging herd of about 325 bison at Wind Cave National Park. The frequency distributions of nursing bout duration are graphed in the results. The data show that older bison cows nurse their calves longer at each bout and allow their calves to end more bouts than do young cows.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Green, Wendy
- Units
- WICA
- Keywords
- Animal Studies, Bison (Bos bison), nursing