Spatio-temporal movements of goat herds in a protected area of Mexico
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Spatio-temporal movements of goat herds in a protected area of Mexico Luz A. Pérez-Solano 1,2
&
Salvador Mandujano 1 & Zulema Bautista 3
Received: 25 August 2019 / Revised: 8 August 2020 / Accepted: 21 October 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Domestic goats represent an important resource for rural human communities in tropical dry regions of Latin America. Management of this species in extensive systems is a common practice in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve (TCBR) in Mexico. We analyzed the spatial and temporal variation of movements associated with the foraging behavior of goats in the TCBR. In order to determine the foraging areas and routes, we followed five herds using a satellite GPS collar during the rainy season of 2017 and the dry season of 2018. Herd size varied from 13 to 90 goats. During the dry season, larger herds traveled longer distances. The herds without a goatherd foraged for longer periods during the rainy season. The size of the foraging area in the rainy season varied from 125 to 378 ha and in the dry season varied from 91 to 428 ha. The geographic location and types of vegetation they covered were different. The results of the present study further the knowledge of the foraging habits of goats in tropical dry regions and thus contribute to the generation and establishment of best livestock practices in protected natural areas such as the TCBR. Keywords Capra hircus . Distance traveled . Extensive systems . Foraging paths . Foraging areas . Herd size
Introduction Small ruminants are critical components of production systems worldwide, particularly in developing countries and the arid zones of Latin America (Papachristou et al. 2005; Iñiguez 2013). Domestic goats (Capra hircus) possess characteristics that enable their survival in areas of adverse conditions where the quantity and quality of water and food sources are limited (Lu 1988; Silanikove 2000; Papachristou et al. 2005). However, the introduction of this ruminant into different
* Luz A. Pérez-Solano [email protected] 1
Red de Biología y Conservación de Vertebrados, Instituto de Ecología A.C., Carretera Antigua a Coatepec 351, El Haya, Xalapa, 91070 Veracruz, México
2
Present address: Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Laboratorio de Biología de la Conservación y Desarrollo Sustentable, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León UANL, Ciudad Universitaria, San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León, México
3
Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad Veracruzana, Carretera Tuxpan-Tampico km 7.5, Col. Universitaria Tuxpan, C.P. 92860 Veracruz, México
regions of the world has had a negative effect in terms of invasion of the natural ecosystems, landscape degradation, competition for resources, and displacement of native species (Rosa et al. 2012; Chynoweth et al. 2013a, b). Although goats have been a major conservation problem in many places (Chynoweth et al. 2013a, b; Burrows 2018), moderate goat grazing is considered valuable for the conservatio
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