Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA.
Department of Biology, Brigham Young University-Idaho, Rexburg, Idaho, USA.
Sci Rep. 2019 Oct 18;9(1):14984. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-51370-y.
Monitoring dispersal, habitat use, and social mixing of released ungulates is crucial for successful translocation and species conservation. We monitored 127 female bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) released in three populations from 2000 to 2009 to investigate if augmented bighorns expanded and shifted seasonal ranges, used different habitat compared with resident females, and if animals mixed socially. Augmented bighorns in all populations expanded range use compared with residents by shifting utilization distributions. Size of utilization distributions, however, were smaller for augmented females compared with residents in all areas except one. Overlap of seasonal utilization distributions between augmented and resident bighorns and use of slope and elevation differed across populations. In two populations, differences in size and overlap of seasonal utilization distributions and use of slope and elevation supported the hypothesis that habitat use of bighorns in their source area influenced their habitat use after release. Mixing between resident and augmented adult females occurred on average during only 21% of sightings and was similar across populations. Our results clarify how augmented bighorns mix with resident animals and how habitat use is modified following augmentations. Such information is needed to improve bighorn sheep augmentations and can be applied to augmentations of other ungulates.
监测释放的有蹄类动物的扩散、栖息地利用和社会混合对于成功的转移和物种保护至关重要。我们从 2000 年到 2009 年监测了三个种群中释放的 127 只雌性大角羊（Ovis canadensis），以调查是否增加的大角羊扩大了并转移了季节性范围，与当地雌性相比使用了不同的栖息地，以及动物是否混合社交。所有种群中的增加的大角羊通过转移利用分布，与居民相比扩大了范围的使用。然而，除了一个地区外，所有地区的利用分布的大小，增加的雌性比居民小。增加和居民大角羊的季节性利用分布的重叠以及对坡度和海拔的利用在不同的种群中有所不同。在两个种群中，季节性利用分布的大小和重叠以及对坡度和海拔的利用的差异支持了这样的假设，即大角羊在其来源地区的栖息地利用影响了它们在释放后的栖息地利用。居民和增加的成年雌性之间的混合平均只发生在 21%的观察中，而且在不同的种群中相似。我们的结果阐明了增加的大角羊如何与当地动物混合以及栖息地利用如何在增加后被修改。这些信息对于改善大角羊的增加和应用于其他有蹄类动物的增加是必要的。
