The Study of livestock behavior of sheep (Shal Race) in Polour Mountain Rangelands

Rangelands consist of different plant species with different vegetative and phenological characteristics that have a certain grazing value. Accordingly, livestock reveals particular grazing behavior. Without knowing these behaviors, range and livestock planning and management is not feasible. To understand the livestock behavior, The Niak site was selected in the mountain rangelands of Mazandaran in the Plour region. Livestock grazing behavior such as the distance traveled daily, the speed of the livestock, the time spent moving, resting and grazing were investigated using GPS. The study period was from 2007 to 2010. The results showed that livestock grazing behavior was different in different months of the season. Livestock grazing behavior showed no significant differences in different years. The maximum livestock movement (min) was recorded in slope class of 15- 30% and the lowest in slope class more than 60%. On average, the distance traveled by livestock in the first, second and third month of the grazing season was calculated to be 14.84 km, 13.30 km, and 12.38 km, respectively.