Ehlenbruch, R., Jørgensen, G. H. M., Andersen, I. L., et al. 2010. Provision of additional walls in the resting area - The effects on resting behaviour and social interactions in goats. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 122(1), 35-40.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of providing extra walls, in addition to the already existing pen walls, in the resting area on resting behaviour and social interactions in goats. Twenty-four dehorned dairy goats (7 weeks pregnant) were distributed into six groups with four goats in each group. The groups were systematically rotated between six pens; five experimental pens with additional walls and one control. The experimental pens were equipped with wooden walls with the following configurations: parallel wall (PAR), cross walls (CRO), perpendicular wall (PER), cubicles (CUB) and three walls (THR). Each pen had a total area of 1.5 m2/goat with a separate activity and resting area of equal size (0.75 m2/goat). For each treatment the goats were given 3 days to get accustomed to the treatments before they were video recorded for 24 h. Resting behaviour and general activity were observed using instantaneous sampling with 10 min intervals in the entire 24 h period, whereas social interactions were continuously scored for 6 h between 09.00 and 15.00 h. Except from the PER treatment (P < 0.05), the goats were resting more frequently against walls in pens with any additional walls than in the control pen. The additional walls did not have any significant effects on the goats total resting time, synchronization of resting, time spent resting in the activity area or resting in body contact. Furthermore, additional walls in the resting area had no significant effects on the goats’ social interactions. In conclusion, the goats’ preference to rest against a wall was better met in pens with addition walls compared to in the control pen (CON), but the design of the additional walls needs further investigation in order to optimize the goats’ use of the resting area.