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Seasonal Grouping in Female Moufflons in Relation to Food Availability
Author(s) -
Bon Richard,
Gonzalez Georges,
Im Sotan,
Badia Jacques
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
ethology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.739
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-0310
pISSN - 0179-1613
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1990.tb00431.x
Subject(s) - reproduction , ecology , seasonal breeder , biology , geography
The social behaviour of ungulates is very often explained by feeding resources. This appears more striking for females since reproduction is very costly in energy terms. We expect female group size to be directly dependent on food availability. Our results on moufflons show that ewe gathering supports this hypothesis during spring, summer and autumn. However, our winter results are contradictory since we observed a stronger tendency of ewes to gather during this season. In the light of recent papers, other ecological or social parameters are discussed to explain this phenomenon.