Hi,

My name is Stephanie Armstrong. I am currently completing a research
project looking at the nutrition and foraging behaviour of plains
zebra at Dublin Zoo, Ireland. As part of this project I would like
to do some preference testing to determine which species of grass are
prefered with the aim of improving the sward quality here at the
zoo. We will grow trial plots of single species for selectivity
feeding to see if there are any noticable preferences, and will also
look at the food value of each species. (To see if they select the
most nutritious, most fibrous etc.)

We will be using several native European species and hopefully some
warm climate species as well. I wondered if anyone knows of any
studies similar to this. I would also appreciate any advise
regarding the grass species I could try. I am not only looking at
what they will eat but what the won't eat! I hope to do the testing
several times over the growing season to determine whether they
prefer different grasses at different stages of growth.

Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you
Steph Armstrong.