The Canadian field-naturalist (1973) (20520301905)

Title: The Canadian field-naturalist
Identifier: canadianfieldnat1973otta (find matches)
Year: 1973 (1970s)
Authors: Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club
Subjects:
Publisher: Ottawa, Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club
Contributing Library: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library



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1973 Miller and Broughton: Caribou Maternal-Filial Behaviour 23 The cow had remained close by, we killed it and performed a necropsy. The dam had a heavy infection of Cysticercus tenui collis in the liver, metritis, hemorrhagic vaginitis, and necrotic vulvitis. Metritis and vaginitis may have interferred with the flow of milk for several days and the calf was then too weak to nurse, or the pressure on the udder may have made it tender and the cow would not let the calf nurse. We examined a milk sample bacteriologically and isolated hemolytic Escherichia coli, a cause of mastitis. The mastitis may have caused the calf to go off the dam's milk. June 20: A female calf (1-2 days old) and its dam were dead. They were in the same posi- tion as the dead maternal pair we found on June 17 (see Figure 2). The presence of the retained placental tissues suggested that the cow had died within days after parturition from an undetermined cause. The dead calf had pneumonic patches in the lungs and no food items in its stomach. It had apparently sur- vived for several days after the death of the dam. June 22: A newborn calf and maternal cow were observed. The calf was too weak to stand and the cow had just finished cleaning it, when the hehcopter approached. Thinking the calf dead, the pilot brought us too close to the cow. It stood its ground until we were within 50 m, ran off about 1 km, and did not return. We saw a second cow and a newborn calf too weak to stand 1 km to the west of the first pair. We kept about 200 m away and the cow remained with her calf. June 26: A cow was dead; its live calf was nearby. We landed about 100 m away and walked to the carcass. The calf stayed several
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Figure 2. Dead maternal cow and calf. The cow died first and the calf remained by its dam and succumbed to malnutrition.