The Location of Hokkaido Native Horses Grazed on Hilly Woodland in Winter Season

Abstract

To clarify the location of Hokkaido native horses grazed on hilly woodland in the winter season, a 24-hour consecutive observation for the focal horse in a herd was conducted each month from October to December when available forage was abundant. Behavior of the focal horse was recorded at 1 minute intervals. The location and the moving route of the focal horse were recorded on the topographic map at 15 minutes intervals. Moving distance and daily located area of the focal horse, which was the area within an imaginary line surrounding the entire location of the horse, were measured from moving route and location points recorded on this topographic map, respectively. The woodland consisted of broadleaf trees and its underlying vegetation was mainly bamboo grass (Sasa nipponica). The experimental paddocks were adjoined by public roads and farm roads, in which a‘ was set for daily management of horses. The following results were obtained : 1) The horse frequently used the pass for moving, and the percentage of moving distance on the pass to total moving distance was about 50%. 2) The horse frequently located in the area near the pass or the public road, and the frequency of location of the horse decreased according to increasing distance from the pass or the public road. 3) Daily located area of the horse was not related to the paddock size. The longer the pass in paddock, the larger the area was located by the horse, while this correlation was not statistically significant.