Introduction: To clarify the maternal effect of flight response to human in beef calves, we investigated the similarity of flight response between cow and calf by measuring their flight distance (FD).
Methodology: Twenty Japanese Black (Bos Taurus) cow-calf pairs were used as subject in 2016 and 2017 respectively. These pairs included same 10 cows in both years. FD of each pair was measured 3 times per cow and calf as follows: we approached from the left or right side of the cow and calf 10 m apart and measured the distance between the feet of the observer and the nearest cow’s hoof at the moment of the cow’s withdrawal. Their median was calculated respectively and the correlation between annual or cow-calf pair were analyzed using R (ver.3.2.2, R Development Core Team).
Main Results:The FD of each cow and calf was approximately median ±1 or 2 m and comparatively steady. There was a significant correlation between the FD of cow-calf pairs in both years (2016: r = 0.769, n = 20, P < 0.05, 2017: r = 0.789, n = 20, P < 0.00005). Cows’ FD were also correlated between 2016 and 2017 (r = 0.725, n = 10, P < 0.05) and their calves’ FD which were different in both years were also correlated between the two years (r = 0.731, n = 10, P < 0.05).
Principal Conclusions and Implications for Field: These findings suggest that the flight response was similar in cow-calf pairs and these attitudes might descend from cow to calf.
Acknowledgment:This research was supported by grants from the Project of the Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institution, NARO(the research project for the future agricultural production utilizing artificial intelligence)．