1. If you have any questions or comments about the materials please contact me by phone or email: Beth Burritt 435-797-3576 beth.burritt@usu.edu

2. 1.Mother knows best. Animals learn most quickly and efficiently from mom. 2.Early learning lasts longest. Experience early in life affects food and habitat preferences, intake and foraging skills. 3.You are what you eat. Structure determines experience and experience determines structure. Key points

3. Why do animals prefer certain foods and locations?

4. BehaviorConsequences

5. Why do animals prefer to eat certain foods?

6. Early Experience Matters Most Most

7. Mother Knows Best

8. and they remember for years

9. Lambs learn quickly, and remember for years Intake of wheat, g/d Exposure to Wheat (1 h/d for 5 d at 6 wk age)

10. Food Preferences

11. If video doesn’t play, insert file Mother_young.wmv

12. Lambs eat what mom eats and avoid what she avoids.

15. Lambs eat what mom eats... Number of bites/lamb

16. ....even after weaning Serviceberry, % of bites

17. Food Intake

18. Experience affects food intake Experience affects food intake Intake, g/kg body weight

19. ...and preference...and preference Inexperienced Experienced

20. Peers

21. Trans-Generational Dynamics Does from Four Regions Offspring next four generations

22. Peers Affect Preference Larkspur (% bites) Larkspur (% bites) Year Averse Control 1993 0 20 1994 0 12 1995 0 11 Larkspur (% bites) Larkspur (% bites) Year Averse Control 1993 0 20 1994 0 12 1995 0 11 Control Averse

23. Foraging Skills

24. If video doesn’t play, insert file Foraging_skills.wmv

25. Experience Affects Foraging Skills Experience Affects Foraging Skills Bites/minute 6 months

26. Experience Affects Foraging Skills Experience Affects Foraging Skills Bites/minute 18 months

27. Habitat Selection

28. Maxfield Thompson

30. Maxfield Thompson Maxfield Thompson  Calf  mother  Yearlings  peers  2-years age  drought  3-years age  mother Maxfield Thompson Maxfield Thompson  Calf  mother  Yearlings  peers  2-years age  drought  3-years age  mother

31. sheep, cattle, goats deer, elk, bighorn sheep, moose sheep, cattle, goats deer, elk, bighorn sheep, moose sage grouse, geese, neo-tropical migratory birds

32. Experience Causes Changes Neurological, Morphological, Physiological The body determines the structure of experience, experience determines the structure of the body. Neurological, Morphological, Physiological The body determines the structure of experience, experience determines the structure of the body.

33. Experience Affects Neurology

34. Experience affects Morphology

35. Experience affects Physiology

37. So what does this mean?

38. Same straw Different performance

39. Different experience

40. Experience Influences Performance Body weight * * * Body condition * * * Milk production * * - Post-partum interval * * - Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

41. Dairies…

44. Why do moose in Norway migrate to the uplands in winter?

45. … to survive

46. Do white-tailed deer in the Adirondacks behave as gas molecules?

47. There’s no place like home.

48. Implications for Management

49. Moving animals to new environments

50. Wild and domestic animals moved to unfamiliar environments suffer more from predation, malnutrition, and ingestion of poisonous plants than animals familiar with the environment…

51. …yet, we buy and sell animals, and move them to unfamiliar environments, without concern for their culture of origin, and then wonder why they don’t perform well…

53. Rod Leavitt buys replacement animals from areas that are similar to where his cattle forage.

54. Stocker Calves......can learn from lead cows who know the range

55. Cattle Depressed Over Loss of Mountain View Moving to New Environments

56. What does it mean to know the range? Replacement Heifers

58. Exposing early weaned lambs to new foods with mom increases intake and reduces illness at weaning

59. Conservation Biology – Wildlife Transplants

61. BehaviorConsequences

62. Consequences Depend on Nature & Nurture

63. We stress the role of genetics as a mechanism of evolution….

64. .…but we ignore the role of culture as a mechanism of evolution

66. It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change. Charles Darwin

67. 1. Mother knows best. Animals learn most quickly and efficiently from mom. 2. Early learning lasts longest. Experience early in life affects food and habitat preferences, intake and foraging skills. 3. You are what you eat. Structure determines experience and experience determines structure. Key points