Fattorini Niccolò, Brunetti Claudia, Baruzzi Carolina, Chiatante Gianpasquale, Lovari Sandro, Ferretti Francesco
Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena. Via P.A. Mattioli 4, 53100 Siena, Italy.
Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena. Via P.A. Mattioli 4, 53100 Siena, Italy.
Behav Processes. 2019 Oct;167:103909. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2019.103909. Epub 2019 Jul 19.
In temperate ecosystems, seasonality influences animal behaviour. Food availability, weather, photoperiod and endogenous factors relevant to the biological cycle of individuals have been shown as major drivers of temporal changes in activity rhythms and group size/structure of herbivorous species. We evaluated how diurnal female foraging activity and grouping patterns of a mountain herbivore, the Apennine chamois Rupicapra pyrenaica ornata, varied during a decreasing gradient of pasture availability along the summer-autumn progression (July-October), a crucial period for the life cycle of mountain ungulates. Females increased diurnal foraging activity, possibly because of constrains elicited by variation in environmental factors. Size of mixed groups did not vary, in contrast with the hypothesis that groups should be smaller when pasture availability is lower. Proportion of females in groups increased, possibly suggesting that they concentrated on patchily distributed nutritious forbs. Occurrence of yearlings in groups decreased, which may have depended on dispersal of chamois in this age class. Presence of kids in groups did not show variation through summer-autumn, suggesting a close mother-juvenile relationship even at the end of weaning and/or, possibly, low summer mortality. Both endogenous and environmental factors contribute to shape variation in foraging activity and grouping behaviour in mountain-dwelling herbivores.
在温带生态系统中，季节性会影响动物行为。食物可利用性、天气、光周期以及与个体生物周期相关的内源性因素已被证明是食草动物活动节律和群体大小/结构随时间变化的主要驱动因素。我们评估了一种山地食草动物——亚平宁岩羚羊（Rupicapra pyrenaica ornata）的雌性日间觅食活动和群体模式，在夏季至秋季（7月至10月）牧场可利用性逐渐降低的过程中是如何变化的，这对山地有蹄类动物的生命周期来说是一个关键时期。雌性增加了日间觅食活动，这可能是由于环境因素变化引发的限制所致。与牧场可利用性较低时群体应该更小的假设相反，混合群体的大小没有变化。群体中雌性的比例增加了，这可能表明它们集中在分布零散的营养丰富的草本植物上。一岁龄个体在群体中的出现频率降低了，这可能取决于该年龄段岩羚羊的扩散情况。群体中幼崽的出现情况在整个夏秋季节没有变化，这表明即使在断奶末期，母幼关系依然紧密，和/或可能表明夏季幼崽死亡率较低。内源性因素和环境因素都有助于塑造山地食草动物觅食活动和群体行为的变化。
