The Palava Biosphere Reserve (South Moravia, Czech Republic) contains
a variety of habitat types and maintains a high diversity of plant and
animal species. Within this unique region is situated a game reserve
for ungulate species. This paper presents the results of dietary simil
arity and dietary overlap of three ungulate species: the wild goat (Ca
pra aegagrus) the mouflon (Ovis musimon) and roe deer (Capreolus capre
olus) within the reserve, including competition and coexistence of the
se species. The qualitative and quantitative similarity of diet of ail
three animal species varies between 20 and 96%. The greatest similari
ty was found for the goat and mouflon diet and lowest for the roe deer
and mouflon. There was marked competition for food during the winter
months, as all three species consume large amounts of broad-leaved spr
outs. This intensive browsing has had a considerable negative impact o
n the vegetation.