Interactions and associations between age and sex classes in mouflon sheep(Ovis gmelini) during winter

The fact that sexual segregation can occur in wild ruminants independently of sex-related differences in habitat use suggests that it results at least partly from social mechanisms. One of the simplest mechanisms which can be hypothesised is that individuals avoid the congener classes which frequent ly try to interact with them (be these interactions 'agonistic' or 'sexual' , since courtship behaviour components typically induce withdrawal when per -formed outside the rut). The aim of the present study was to test, in mouf lon sheep (Ovis gmelini), whether the age-sex classes which exchange freque nt interactions on meeting occur rarely inside the same groups. Observation s were made during winter, on a small population in Germany. Interactions w ere recorded at an attractive site where all age-sex classes met daily. Foo t transects were conducted in parallel over the whole study area in order t o determine group composition. As expected, adults of different sexes excha nged Frequent interactions at the attractive site and were rarely found in the same groups under free-ranging conditions, while adult females, who int eracted little with one another, were quite frequently associated. However, adult males simultaneously exhibited the highest rate of interaction at th e attractive site and the highest frequency of association under free-rangi ng conditions, Unlike Female-female and male female pairs, in which interac tions with a clear initiator and a clear recipient predominated, male male pairs exchanged often spectacular but 'symmetrical' interactions (during wh ich the two individuals behaved in the same way). The hypothesis that sexua l segregation results from the avoidance of the congener classes which freq uently engage interactions only holds for females. Adult rams interact freq uently and seek companions with whom symmetrical interactions can be perfor med. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.