Maternal Behavior Of Ewe Sensing An Environmental Threat...

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine if the level of maternal behavior of ewe sensing an environmental threat changes as in stage of pre-parturition to the post-parturition. The hypothesis is that the frequency of maternal ewe’s behavior of facing adversary such as any environmental threat increases from the pre-natal stage to the post-natal stage as they give birth to be more protective for its offspring. Introductory: For the mammals, the female nurse and care for the offspring plays the important role for its survival. The survival of the neonates will hardly be made without having an adaptive maternal care that provides basic needs of the neonate, such as warmth, shelter, food, or protection (Gubernick, 1981). In this study, the protection level of the eight pregnant ewes, one of the animal spices specified as having a meek characteristic with no means of protection (Nowak, 1996), was measured to compare its frequency of perceiving an alert in means of protection for their offspring, during both pre-natal and post-natal stages. The hypothesis was tested by comparing the frequency of eight pregnant ewes’ behavior of facing adversary, cocking up the ears, and staring at the objet that give any sort of environmental threat during their pre and post-natal stages. Such behaviors were chose to be studied because they are visible behaviors, which display the ewes perceiving an alert from an environment which they are surrounded by, and it directly reflects