Ethological characteristics of herd Yakut horses by seasons of the year
The purpose of the work is to study the ethological features of the herd horses of the Yakut breed according to the seasons of the year in order to develop rational methods for the use of forage lands. In summer, the Yakut horses hide in protected places at a temperature of + 25 ... + 28 ° C and midnight activity, in winter at a temperature of - 35 ... - 38 ° C and with wind speed increasing up to 5-10 m/s. The main parameters of the effect of temperature, wind, depth and density of snow cover on winter pasture mode are determined. The number of digging movements was determined depending on the depth of snow cover. It was established that the shoals of horses, including 10-15 mares, were placed on the pasture separately from each other. However, some shoals were removed at 30-50 km from the central base. In the summer, horses traveled 5-7 km per day, of which 3-4 km during grazing. Herding was carried out against the backdrop of frequent transitions from place to place. Tracking results in winter showed that at the beginning of winter, with shallow snow cover (15-20 cm), horses traveled 5-6 km per day, and with a snow depth of 30-45 cm, the daily path length was reduced to 4 km (during pasty- up to 3 km). According to the study of the spatial structure of the shoals, the sizes of the area of the joint were calculated. During the pasture, a shoal of 12-15 heads is located in the summer at 100-250 m<sup>2</sup>, in the winter - at 120-160 m<sup>2</sup>. In this case, all the shoals followed the routes associated with seasonal changes in environmental conditions, the state of the grass stand on the lands of inhabited areas. Observations have shown that in most cases, the leaders are not the shoal's stallion, but the old mares, who possess great individual experience and, probably, the ability of spatial orientation in the territory of the annual habitat that is firmly fixed in memory. Concluded that the results of studying the behavior of herd horses can be used for zootechnical assessment of forage lands and rationalization of pasture livestock farming in Yakutia.