Analysis of GPS trajectories to assess spatio-temporal differences in grazing patterns and land use preferences of domestic livestock in southwestern Madagascar

Pastoralism

Research, Policy and Practice

Table 4 Characteristics of the daily grazing itineraries of goats and their activities on pasture. The number of tracks results from pooling individual herd data per three-day-survey period. Italic values indicate standard errors of the mean

Season	Village	Tracks (n)	Itinerary characteristics				Daily activity time (%)
Season	Village	Tracks (n)	walking_dist (km/d)	max_dist (km/d)	dist_water (km/d)	Duration (h d⁻¹)	Resting	Feeding	Walking
EDS	AK	10	8.4^a	2.2^ab	1.2^a	9.0^a	8.5^ab	69.3^a	22.2^a
	EF	12	8.2^a	1.7^a	0.4^a	9.4^a	3.1^a	73.0^a	23.9^a
	AD	10	10.5^ab	2.6^ab	0.8^a	9.5^a	13.4^b	59.3^a	27.3^a
	MI	10	11.8^b	2.8^b	2.6^b	8.6^a	6.0^a	71.1^a	22.9^a
			0.42	0.14	0.21	0.22	1.33	2.01	1.40
LDS	AK	14	11.0^a	1.9^ab	1.1^a	10.2^a	13.1^a	62.9^a	24.0^a
	EF	15	9.4^a	1.8^a	0.5^a	9.8^a	4.6^a	74.6^a	20.8^a
	AD	15	14.1^b	3.0^b	1.9^ab	10.8^a	7.0^a	70.3^a	22.7^a
	MI	13	14.6^b	3.6^bc	4.7^b	10.3^a	7.0^a	67.9^a	25.1^a
			0.48	0.16	0.30	0.27	1.13	1.76	1.37
RS	AK	5	10.4^a	2.0^ab	1.1^b	10.5^a	14.7^a	64.0^a	21.3^a
	EF	6	8.7^a	1.6^a	0.3^a	10.3^a	6.3^a	76.0^a	17.7^a
	AD	11	10.8^ab	2.0^ab	0.9^ab	10.3^a	12.2^a	68.3^a	19.5^a
	MI	12	13.0^b	2.6^b	1.3^b	10.5^a	9.4^a	66.7^a	23.9^a
			0.37	0.11	0.10	0.22	1.21	1.78	1.05
Independent variable		df
Site		1	***	***	***	n.s.	*	*	n.s.
Season		2	***	*	**	***	n.s	n.s.	n.s.

walk_dist, total distance of daily trajectories; max_dist, furthest distance of a herd from its night enclosure; dist_water, linear distance between night enclosure and the nearest visited water hole. EDS, early dry season; LDS, late dry season; RS, rainy season. AD, Andremba; AK, Ankilibory; EF, Efoetse; MI, Miarintsoa. ^{a, b, c}Significant differences between means in the same column within one season according to post hoc tests. *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001, n.s., non-significant