SEASONAL USE AND SELECTION OF HABITAT BY MOUFLON (OVIS-GMELINI) - COMPARISON OF THE SEXES

We studied seasonal habitat use of female, mixed-sex and male groups i n a free-ranging mouflon (Ovis gmelini) population. The three group ty pes differed in the use of the five different habitats (forests, broom moorlands, heather moorlands, meadows and rocky areas) only in spring (lambing period) and in autumn (rutting period). To study habitat sel ection, we compared the proportion of groups observed in each habitat type with the proportion of each of these habitat types sampled. This revealed that, for the four seasons, all three group types selected ce rtain habitats. Overall, mouflon selected meadows and/or broom moorlan ds, but male groups switched to forests in spring and autumn. We exami ned this pattern of habitat selection in relation to shelter Value and feeding activity for the three group types. Wind strength played a ro le in determining patterns of habitat use during the climatic extremes of winter and summer. Male and female groups consistently fed in the same habitat types, even though they did not select the same habitats in spring and autumn and despite a marked segregation between the sexe s in this population. Two commonly cited hypothesis for explaining sex ual segregation based on sexual size dimorphism and on alternative rep roductive strategies of males and females were not supported by our re sults. We suggest that simple behavioural mechanisms may suffice to ex plain sexual segregation in this population. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.