The experience of a certain stimulus can affect the response to it. This study investigated whether the road transportation experience of goats affected their response to it. Six Shiba goats (15 - 30kg, 1 - 3 years age) were transported by truck for a duration of one hour on eight occasions, with the interval of 1 -7 days between each. A control test was also conducted, in which goats were loaded onto the parked truck for one hour. Three types of behavior, lying down, frequent changing the body direction, and foaming at the mouth, were observed to occur only when goats were transported and not in the control test. The latency from the start of transportation to the onset of lying down was significantly different across the transportation replicates; goats were observed lying down significantly faster after the third replicate than in the first (P < 0.05). In addition, the cumulative duration of the lying period was significantly longer after the fourth transportation than in the first (P < 0.05). Plasma cortisol levels, which were measured in the first, second, fifth and eighth transportations, were significantly increased by transportation (P < 0.01); there was no significant difference across transportation replicates. In the first transportation, plasma cortisol levels remained high even after the goats had been returned to their pens, and were not significantly different 60 min after transportation ended from those recorded during transportation. However, in the second, fifth and eighth transportations, plasma cortisol at 60 min after transportation ended had reduced to significantly lower levels than during the transportation (P < 0.05). At 60 min after transportation, plasma cortisol levels in the second, fifth and eighth transportations were significantly lower than those in the first (P < 0.05). The finding are consistent with the hypothesis that behavioral responses to transportation can be modified by its experience. Plasma cortisol levels indicated that road transportation can be highly stressful in goats, even after they have had multiple experience. However, goats showed that recovery times after transportation can be significantly reduced as a consequent of the repeated experience.

Jungle crows (Corvus macrorhynchos japonensis) were captured in the center (Ueno Zoological Gardens) and suburbs (Snow Brand’s Kodomonokuni Ranch) of Tokyo to survey regional differences in their physique and nutritional status. Analysis of sexual dimorphism revealed that, regardless of whether an individual was an adult or a juvenile, body mass was larger, the exposed culmen length was longer, and the bill height greater in males than in females at both Ueno and Kodomonokuni (P < 0.01). We then performed inter-regional comparisons of physique in both adults and juveniles separately according to sex. Body mass in all groups of birds studied (all adult males, all adult females, all juvenile males, and all juvenile females) was smaller at Ueno than at Kodomonokuni (P < 0.01). Conversely, in all groups, the bill (length of exposed culmen and height of bill)-a weapon in the struggle for survival (transport and securing of food, defense from the threat of attack by others)-was larger (P < 0.01) at Ueno than at Kodomonokuni. Individuals of either sex and any age at Ueno had poorer nutritional status (i.e. greater malnutrition rates) than those at Kodomonokuni (P < 0.01). Comparison of nutritional status between adults and juveniles revealed that juveniles at both Ueno and Kodomonokuni had poorer status than adults (P < 0.01). Comparison of the nutritional status of male and female birds of all ages revealed that, at Ueno, females had poorer status than males (P < 0.05), but there was no between-sex difference in nutritional status at Kodomonokuni (P > 0.05). In addition, comparison of nutritional status in two seasons-the breeding season (March to July) and the non-breeding season (August to February)-revealed that in both seasons both adults and juveniles had poorer status at Ueno than at Kodomonokuni (P < 0.01); the season when the birds were trapped for survey had no effect on this regional difference. Jungle crows in central Tokyo, which relied on food waste as a food resource and were densely distributed, had small physiques and poor nutritional status; malnutrition was especially apparent in growing juveniles and in females, which were disadvantaged in terms of sexual dimorphism.

The objective of this study was to describe the effect of herd size, the quality of mixed ration fed in the barn trough, and the amount of concentrate in the automatic milking unit (AM unit) on the frequency of the visit and milking of cows. Eighteen automatic milking system (AMS) herds were used in the study, with the average herd size per AM unit ranging from 24 to 61 lactating cows. All of the herds were kept in a free cow traffic barn. The frequencies of visiting and milking, as well as milk yield and the amount of concentrate offering in the AM units were automatically recorded by AM unit. The average frequencies of visit to an AM unit ranged from 2.9 to 5.9 times per day. The average number of milking times was from 2.3 to 3.6 per day. There was a significant (P<0.05) relationship between the frequency of visiting (y) and milking (x). The frequency of visiting an AM unit was changed quadratically with the herd size. The significant (P<0.05) equation was given; y=-6.6/x+4.5, r=0.738. Maximum estimated number of visit to AM unit was 4.7 visit/day at about 41 cows. After the two herds were removed because of the high nutritional formulation of the partly mixed ration for the cows, a quadratic equation (y=-2.07x+0.28x²+7.36, R=0.753) was given to describe the relationship between the amount of concentrate offered (x) and the frequency of visits to an AM unit (y). This equation showed that the amount of concentrate offering in AM unit facilitated cow’s visit to AM unit over 3.7 kg/day.