The study was conducted from July 5 to October 1 in a petting exhibit with two breeds of goats and one breed of sheep at Kolmården Wildlife Park, Sweden. In the enclosure there were 9 adult Anglo Nubian goats, 14 adult African pigmy goats and 8 adult Roslagen sheep, a Swedish native breed, which were used for the data collection. There were also kids and lambs in the enclosure but they were excluded from the study.

The animals had several enclosures, however only one was used as the primary enclosure when the park was open for visitors with an area of around 4500 m². This enclosure had a variable terrain; rocks, grassy areas and areas with gravel, trees, wind and rain shelters and partly inside area also for shelter. The area where the visitors were allowed was on gravel paths throughout the enclosure, but they could also climb on the rocks and on a hilly area with some trees. The animals had big grassy areas fenced with ropes and the inside area where the visitors were not allowed. It was in these areas that they were fed. If a visitor ignored the fence and walked into these areas, staff in the enclosure told them to return to the visitor area. The staff also told people to stop if they did something they should not do, such as feeding, lifting, pulling and hitting the animals. The staff was also in the enclosure to provide information about the animals to the visitors.

Behaviour observations were conducted for 49 days on all the 31 adult animals in the enclosure. 16 behaviours where observed for all animals. The observation method used was focal animal sampling, 1-0 registration with intervals of 30 seconds, during each interval it was noted if an animal performed a behaviour or not. Thus, observing each animal for total of 5 minutes each day. For the hole behaviour study the animals was observed 123.5 hours.