Ethogram of three genetic groups of goats confined using monitoring video images

ABSTRACT

The ethogram description of confined goats is an alternative that helps identify animals' behaviour, their main behavior and the importance of developing production systems that provide better welfare conditions. This paper aims to describe the ethogram of three genetic groups of confined goats Azul, Moxotó and Graúna, through monitoring video images, using 9 animals kept in individual pens, monitored by video cameras mounted on the roof of each pen. As for the design and description of ethogram, 810 hours of video image were recorded and analysed, these being from being nine hours a day periods; three in the morning, afternoon and night. We identified 34 visual behaviours, which were grouped into eight categories according to their functional character food = 4), social interaction (n = 6), displacement (n = 2), resting (n = 3), grooming (n = 4), neutral position (n = 3), bipedal (n = 5) and other activities (n = 7). In conclusion, behaviors described in the ethogram were similar for all three genetic groups. Goats conduct their daily routine with sequences of behaviour that involve eating (food intake or selection) and resting or ruminating, with social interactions and other activities having happened more frequently in the afternoon and at that time in the afternoon before being provided with food.