Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2007
Authors
Atle Mysterud Erling Meisingset Vebjørn Veiberg Rolf Langvatn Erling Johan Solberg Leif Egil Loe Nils Christian StensethAbstract
Proper management of wildlife relies on metrics of population development. Typically, the best estimation techniques are too expensive for coarse-scale management. In marine fisheries, catch-per-unit effort is commonly used, but problems may arise due to changes in spatial harvest effort or in habitat use as density changes. Managers in Norway are in the early phases of implementing "seen deer" during harvesting and "spring counts" on farmland as a means of monitoring red deer Cervus elaphus populations. We provide a first evaluation of how suitable these methods are by comparing the results with population estimates obtained using cohort analysis, and by analysing the within-season variation in number of seen deer. "Seen deer" predicted annual increases in populations fairly well. Adjusting for harvesting effort provided less good estimates, due to a proportionally larger increase in effort relative to deer population size as population size increased. The number of seen deer per day decreased rapidly at the beginning of the season, and then levelled off or increased slightly during the rut, especially on farmland. The number of seen deer increased both with the number of harvesters and hours harvested, but at a diminishing rate. The current practice of "spring counts" was not successful in predicting population changes, probably due to a lack of replication. Indeed, date strongly affected the number of deer seen during spring counts. While "seen deer" seems to be a very promising tool for monitoring population size of red deer, there are some limitations to the practice as implemented for moose Alces alces in Scandinavia due to a more complex relationship with harvesting effort. Our study highlights that the large number of hours harvesters observe wildlife can provide a useful tool for population monitoring. However, the use of such indices may vary between species and according to harvest techniques and should thus be assessed with care before implementation
Abstract
A main scourge in Norwegian sheep farming is tick-borne fever (TBF) caused by the bacteria A. phagocytophilum and transmitted by the tick Ixodes ricinus. The aim of this poster is to present a new research project on resistance to TBF in sheep (2007?2010).
2006
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
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No abstract has been registered
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Abstract
Organic Cow Comfort is an advisory tool in animal welfare, developed to secure animal welfare on organic dairy farms in Norway. The farm advisory tool consists of * A farm visit by a veterinarian and a production advisor both specialized in animal welfare and organic farming * An evaluation of herd health and welfare through welfare assessment * Advice on disease prevention and improve-ment of animal welfare * Follow up visit by an advisor looking at im-plementation of new initiatives * Counselling meetings with groups of farmer The evaluation of herd health and welfare is done with the help of checklists where animal based pa-rameters, farm management and operating systems, and human-animal relationship are recorded. A report is prepared after every farm visit with a health and welfare plan where specific measures for improve-ment of animal welfare are outlined.
2002
Authors
John Durrus Linnell Erlend Birkeland Nilsen Unni Støbet Lande Ivar Herfindal John Odden Ketil Skogen Reidar Andersen Urs BreitenmoserAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Patrolling with livestock guard dogs in mountain rangelands in Norway was evaluated as a method to prevent predation in areas with widely dispersed sheep. In contrast to the traditional use of guard dogs, patrol dogs are closer socially bonded to people and follow a range inspector around. Range inspection was performed in 5 h bouts during three nights per week. The method was tested during three summer seasons in a total of eight sheep flocks grazing in three different mountain ranges. In total, three inspectors and four dogs were involved. Significant reductions in the number of sheep lost were achieved in one of the study areas. Lack of significance in the other areas were mainly due to the size of the area and qualities of the dogs: the range to be patrolled by one man/dog unit should not exceeed 10-12 km2, and the dogs should be experienced guard dogs, which are properly socialized for this method.
1999
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
1997
Abstract
No abstract has been registered