Altering animal behaviour for improved rangeland management

Grazing of livestock is an important land use in dry rangelands (drylands), but is often associated with land degradation.In extensive pastoral systems, uncontrolled livestock grazing often leads to overuse of preferred areas and underuse of others.Self Herding is a conceptual term describing a strategy that allows managers to alter animal behaviour using a range of olfactory, sight and sound cues to influence how animals move across the landscape.This reduces the use of stressful activities that lead to reduced livestock condition.The potential benefits of Self Herding include lower animal stress, improved landscape condition (less erosion and overgrazing), and fewer attacks and herd interference by predators.In Australia, Self Herding has been trialled for more than a decade, with clear land management benefits.However, further work is needed to validate Self Herding strategies using more rigorous scientific methods, and to explore a greater number of situations with various landscapes and soil types, showing where it can have maximum benefit.