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Group Choice by Subadult Bighorn Rams: Trade‐offs between Foraging Efficiency and Predator Avoidance
Author(s) -
Ruckstuhl Kathreen E.,
FestaBianchet Marco
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
ethology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.739
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-0310
pISSN - 0179-1613
DOI - 10.1046/j.1439-0310.2001.00663.x
Subject(s) - population , biology , predator , demography , foraging , sex ratio , bachelor , predation , ecology , geography , archaeology , sociology
In addition to sexual segregation, many social ungulates show varying degrees of age segregation, especially among males. We investigated factors affecting group choice by subadult male bighorn sheep, using census data collected between 1982 and 1998 in a marked population. We examined whether group composition varied with population size and structure. Changes in total population size were correlated with the number of yearling males and yearling females, but not with the size of other sex‐age classes. In years of high population size, female groups were larger than in years of low population size, while mixed sex‐age and subadult groups showed a nonsignificant trend in the same direction. Typical group sizes of bachelor groups and the occurrence of mixed or bachelor groups were not affected by population size. When there were few subadult males in the population, groups of subadult males were less frequent than in years with many subadult males in the population, but the typical group size did not change. Subadult males were rarely seen in peer groups, and switched from female groups in spring to bachelor groups in autumn. An individual’s choice of group type is affected by its body mass, but also by the availability of enough potential group mates to provide sufficient predator‐detection efficiency.