Behavioural response of grazing lambs to changes associated with feeding and separation from their mothers at weaning

This study aimed to determine which behaviours were provoked in lambs in response to the separation from their dams or to the changes associated with feeding and separation from adults at weaning. Fourteen lambs were separated from their dams at 24–36h after birth and artificially reared (AR) in presence of four adult ewes, while another 13 lambs remained with their dams from birth (DR). At 75days of age on average (day 0) DR lambs were separated from their dams and AR lambs no longer received sheep’s milk and were separated from adults. Behaviours were recorded every 10min (6h per day) from day −3 to day 4. We observed an increase (p