Sheep Quickstep while the Floor Rock and Rolls: Visuomotor Lateralization during Simulated Sea Travel

摘要

Simple SummaryDuring livestock transport the floor of the vehicle moves in a way that can disturb their balance. This can stress the animals, producing signals that are processed by the right half of their brain. This half of the brain controls movement of the sheep on the opposite, left side of their body. Hence we investigated whether limb movement was more pronounced on this side, providing evidence of stress responses. We found that sheep limb movements were increased in their left hindlimb and right forelimb during balance correction when the floor movements were most unpredictable. This may be explained by sheep using their back right leg as a pivot. We further tested which side sheep lie down on from internet pictures and found a preference for left side lying. We conclude that sheep balance correction shows evidence of a preferred use of limbs, which suggests that sheep are stressed by floor motion.