. 2018 Mar 12;5:45. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2018.00045

Table 1.

Overview of observations within studies of maternal behavior in cattle with main emphasis on prepartum behavior.

	Feral cattle	Pasture-kept cattle	Cattle housed in intensive commercial environment (mainly indoors)
Features of the birth site

Vegetative/visual cover	Differs with habitat^h,k	Differs with habitat^E Mainly visual cover^A	No clear preference¹⁹

Provides cover from disturbances	Not studied	Yes, from herd members^A	Calving when quiet in the barn^1,5,21 Higher stocking density results in lower “isolation seeking”¹⁷

Distance to herd	Leave the herd but no defined distance^e,g,h,i 10–380 m away from the herd^d	Leave the herd but no defined distance^G	Not studied

Prepartum behavioral changes

Separation from herd	Yes^{a,c, e,g,h,i,j} Only some cows do^b,d,f	Yes^A,C,E Only some cows do^F No^B,D,H	Yes^4,16 Only some cows do⁶ Yes, but depends on calving difficulty¹⁹

Restlessness	Yes^d	Yes^A,C,F	Yes^{1,3,4,10,12,21} Varies with calving difficulty^2,19

Increased walking/searching	Yes^d	Yes^C,F	Yes^{1,7,12,13,14,19,22}

Lying time	Not studied	Unchanged^G	Lower on the day of calving^10,15 Higher 8 h before calving³

Increased transition from standing to lying and vice versa	Yes^d	Yes^A,C,G	Yes^{1,2,3,8,10,12,13,14,15,19,22}

Increased sniffing/exploration	Not studied	Not studied	Yes^1,14,19,22 No²

Increased tail raising	Not studied	Yes^C,F	Yes^{2,11,12,13,14}

Licking own body and attention toward abdomen	Yes^d	Yes^C	Yes^1,10,12,22No¹¹

Scraping or pawing the ground	Yes^d	Yes^C	Yes^1,22

Less feeding behavior	Yes^d	Not studied	Yes^10,12,13,14

Reduced rumination	Not studied	Not studied	Yes^1,3,7

A role of olfaction

Licking of own birth fluids	Yes^d	Yes^A,C,F	Yes^{1,12,14,18,20,22}

Calving at own birth fluid spot	Not studied	Yes^A,C	Yes^18,20

Mismothering	Not observed^{^j}	Yes^A,B,F Not observed^G	Yes^6,9,19

Interest and sniffing from other cows during calving	No^j Yes^f Only from cows close to calving themselves^d	Yes^A,B,F No^G	Yes^6,9,15,18,19

The table includes 41 studies separated into the categories: feral (n = 11), pasture-kept (n = 8), and intensive commercial cattle mainly housed indoors (n = 22). Aspects of and behaviors related to three different subjects (features of the birth site, prepartum behavioral changes, and the role of olfaction) are listed. Numbers and characters in superscript indicate the corresponding reference listed at the bottom of the table, with the number in brackets after each reference indicating the order in the reference list. ‘Not studied’ refers to the authors being unable to find any literature on this specific aspect.

References: ^aBaskin and Stepanov (21); ^bFinger et al. (22); ^cHall (13); ^dKiley-Worthington and de la Plain (23); ^eLent (4); ^fLidfors and Jensen (24); ^gReinhardt (25); ^hReinhardt et al. (12); ⁱSchloeth (14); ^jVitale et al. (11); ^AAitken et al. (26); ^BEdwards (27); ^CGeorge and Barger (10); ^DLidfors (28); ^ELidfors et al. (3); ^FOwens et al. (29); ^GRice et al. (30); ^HWood-Gush et al. (31); ¹Arthur (32); ²Barrier et al. (33); ³Borchers et al. (34); ⁴Dufty (35); ⁵Edwards (36); ⁶Edwards and Broom (16); ⁷Houwing et al. (17); ⁸Huzzey et al. (37); ⁹Illmann and Špinka (38); ¹⁰Jensen (8); ¹¹Lange et al. (39); ¹²Metz and Metz (40); ¹³Miedema et al. (41); ¹⁴Miedema et al. (42); ¹⁵Proudfoot et al. (43); ¹⁶Proudfoot et al. (44); ¹⁷Proudfoot et al. (45); ¹⁸Rørvang et al. (46); ¹⁹Rørvang et al. (47); ²⁰Selman et al. (48); ²¹von Keyserlingk and Weary (49); ²²Wehrend et al. (9).