ArticleScientific reports2017
How goats avoid ingesting noxious insects while feeding.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Incidental Ingestion of Plant-Dwelling Arthropods by Sheep and Cattle in the Same Habitat.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Revealing cryptic interactions between large mammalian herbivores and plant-dwelling arthropods via DNA metabarcoding.Ecology · 2022Article
- Innate ability of goats to sense and avoid ingestion of noxious insects while feeding.Royal Society open science · 2019Article
- Understanding natural behavior to improve dairy goat (Translational animal science · 2019Article
- Cascading effects on bacterial communities: cattle grazing causes a shift in the microbiome of a herbivorous caterpillar.The ISME journal · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
As mammalian herbivores feed, they often encounter noxious insects on plants. It is unknown how they handle such insects. We experimentally examined the behavioural responses of goats to the noxious spring-webworm (Ocnogyna loewii), and manipulated their sensory perception to reveal the process of insect detection. Goats did not avoid plants with webworms, demonstrating a remarkable ability to sort them apart from the plant (98% of webworms survived). Initial detection of webworms involved tactile stimulation, done by repeatedly touching the leaves with the muzzle. This enabled them to pick webworm-free leaves. If the goats picked up leaves with a webworm, they shook or discarded the leaf. They spat out webworms that entered their mouths, after detecting them by touch and taste. By using their keen senses and efficient behaviours, goats are able to feed while accurately excluding insects. These findings highlight the importance of direct interactions between mammalian herbivores and insects.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.