In Norway, cattle are released to large areas of boreal forest for summer grazing. To determine to what degree this practice challenges timber production and wildlife management, we need a better understanding of basic cattle ecology. What do cattle, typical grazers, feed on in a habitat typically used by browsers? We determined cattle's resource use and selection at three scales: habitat and microhabitat selection when foraging and diet selection. Boreal forest is dominated by grass-poor habitats, and despite their strong selection for grass-rich habitats, cows spent a lot of time in suboptimal habitats, like old bilberry spruce forest. However, they managed to find grass-rich habitat patches within those, selecting for patches with bentgrass ( spp) Graminoids, mainly wavy hair-grass ( spp) tussock grass (), and true sedges ( spp.) made up the biggest part of the fecal samples. Woody plants, mainly willow ( spp) spp. pine ( spp), and birch ( spp) made up 9.4% ± 4.7% of the samples, a value lower than reported for other forest grazing cattle. Cattle avoided woody plants in their diet and selected for graminoids. They preferred deciduous over coniferous species. At these low stocking densities, the cows were grazers in this browser's habitat. Moreover, they selected rather on habitat and patch scale than for individual plants within a given habitat patch, considered typical for a grazer. Their grass-rich diet indicates little overlap with the diet of local wild ungulates, which are mostly browsers. Their aversion of spruce and selection for graminoids and deciduous trees indicates low conflict risk for browsing damages and even a beneficial weeding effect on trees planted for timber production.

中文翻译：

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浏览器栖息地中的食草动物：高产北方森林中觅食牛的资源选择

在挪威，牛被放归大片北方森林进行夏季放牧。为了确定这种做法对木材生产和野生动物管理的挑战程度，我们需要更好地了解基本的牛生态学。牛（典型的食草动物）在通常由浏览器使用的栖息地中以什么为食？我们从三个层面确定了牛的资源利用和选择：觅食时的栖息地和微栖息地选择以及饮食选择。北方森林以贫草栖息地为主，尽管它们对草丰富的栖息地进行了强烈选择，但奶牛在次优栖息地中度过了很多时间，例如古老的越橘云杉森林。然而，他们设法在其中找到了富含草的栖息地斑块，选择了含有翦股颖 ( spp ) 禾本科植物的斑块，主要是波状发草 ( spp ) 草丛 ( ) 和真莎草 ( spp ) 构成了最大的部分粪便样本。木本植物，主要​​是柳树 (spp) spp。松树 ( spp ) 和桦树 ( spp ) 占样本的 9.4% ± 4.7%，该值低于其他森林放牧牛的报告值。牛在饮食中避免使用木本植物，并选择禾本科植物。他们更喜欢落叶树种而不是针叶树种。在如此低的放养密度下，奶牛在这个浏览器的栖息地里吃草。此外，他们选择的是栖息地和斑块规模，而不是特定栖息地斑块内的单个植物，这被认为是典型的食草动物。它们富含草的饮食与当地野生有蹄类动物（主要是食肉动物）的饮食几乎没有重叠。他们厌恶云杉并选择禾本科植物和落叶树，这表明浏览损害的冲突风险较低，甚至对木材生产所种植的树木具有有益的除草效果。