Behaviour of New-Born Lambs

Maternal behaviour is key to ensuring the survival of lambs, particularly when a ewe has two or more offspring. New-born lambs need milk and immunological protection shortly after birth, and early interactions between the mother and the young are critical in this respect. Bonding, and consequently survival, of twins, can be considerably improved if the ewe remains at the birth site for a minimum of 6 hours, and this can be encouraged in part through feeding management. Two major factors contribute to the formation of this early bonding: postnatal vocal communication and sucking. The ewe makes a low-level bleating noise, standing so as to encourage the lamb to find the udder and start suckling.

Research has shown that:

• Lambs that are quick to stand and suck after birth have better survival than lambs that are slow to get up and suck.
• Lamb behaviour is influenced by lamb genetics – breed, selection line within breed and sire of the lamb all affected early lamb behaviour. Lamb behaviour immediately after birth is heritable, suggesting that selection for lamb behavioural traits could improve lamb vigour at birth and increase lamb survival.
• Lamb rectal temperatures are correlated with lamb behaviour. Taking a lamb’s temperature soon after birth could provide useful information on lamb vigour.

The ewe and lamb maintain a close spatial relationship over the first week of life. After this period lambs gather into peer playgroups and up to 4 weeks of age, they go increasingly longer distances from their dam. Nurturing and recognition are the key components of early maternal care, and the ewe expresses these through immediate licking and grooming behaviour, which enables her to learn the smell of her offspring.

As well as recognizing their mothers’ voices, lambs also visually recognize breeds and are attracted by the sight of the same breed in the absence of their mother. There are significant breed differences in grazing, activity and social interactions. Maternal influence plays an important role in shaping the behaviour of their offspring as they develop, although this is not evident immediately after birth, where breed differences are most evident regarding sucking and early vigour and play behaviour.

Social learning influences dietary habits, with lambs generally acquiring a preference for foods or grazing behaviour that they have learned about from their mothers or from young companions. They also prefer feeds that are nutritious and avoid those that are toxic, again following early positive or negative experiences.

The location of preferred foods will influence where sheep choose to forage. As they grow, lambs will imitate the mother’s preferences for grazing location. It has been proposed that exposing social groups of sheep to underutilized habitat types early in life may increase their usage of these areas at later stages and therefore careful and strategic grazing management can offer the best opportunity to improve grazing distribution.

Click here to view a video that explains the observation of newborn lambs.