Movements of Hokkaido Native Horses in Pasture under Continuous Grazing Conditions with GPS Loggers: A Preliminary Study

Tomoko Saitoh* and Moyu Kobayashi

Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada-cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan

*Corresponding Author: Tomoko Saitoh, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Inada-cho, Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan.

Received: March 11, 2022; Published: April 22, 2022

Abstract

The Hokkaido native horse is one of eight breeds endemic to Japan. However, only 1,083 of these horses were registered in 2021, indicating that the breed requires protection. To ensure effective protection, more knowledge is needed, especially about the behavior of the horses while grazing. Therefore, to clarify their behavioral characteristics, we used a Global Positioning System logger to record the routes taken by a herd of native Hokkaido horses while moving around their grazing land. The experiment was conducted in the pastures of the Hokkaido native horse breeding ranch in Memuro, Hokkaido. Here, a herd of 70 Hokkaido native horses grazes on a site of approximately 80 ha from spring to autumn when the forage is abundant. Records were made between May and October of 2019. The temperature and related humidity were also recorded hourly during route tracking. The speed during recording was 6.1 km/h to 35.2 km/h. When the speed exceeded 30 km/h, the herd was moving at a gallop or canter due to the effects of management. The herd did not move on a specific route on a regular basis, and it could not be said that the temperature and humidity affected the route taken by the horse herd. In this study, some features of the behavior of the Hokkaido native horse under grazing management were clarified.

Keywords: Route Tracking, GPS, Hokkaido Native Horse, Grazing Management, Behavior

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Citation

Citation: Tomoko Saitoh and Moyu Kobayashi. “Movements of Hokkaido Native Horses in Pasture under Continuous Grazing Conditions with GPS Loggers: A Preliminary Study". Acta Scientific Agriculture 6.5 (2022): 52-57.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Tomoko Saitoh and Moyu Kobayashi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.