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In the context of global warming, investigating how animals buffer against the hottest conditions is a crucial issue. We focused on habitat selection in a French Mediterranean mouflon population during 2010-2012 summers. Using locations and temperatures recorded on GPScollared individuals, we assessed thermal cover provided by different habitats and analyzed sex- and scale-specific habitat selection and its thermal consequences for mouflon. At the home range scale, females (n = 26) avoided unsafe plateaux and selected steep refuges, trading off thermal cover with better conditions for lamb survival. Larger males (n = 18), not constrained by young rearing and expected to respond more strongly than smaller females to hot conditions, rather selected forests on plateaux providing thermal cover. In terms of movements, both sexes selected forests during hottest days. Males also took advantage of food and thermal cover provided by moorlands on plateaux until twilight, whereas females traded off food and thermal cover with refuges. Thermal cover significantly influenced habitat selection when temperature at the closest weather station exceeded 17.1 °C (95% confidence interval = 14.9-19.7) in males and 15.5 °C (95% confidence interval = 13.9--16.5) in females. Above these thresholds, ambient temperatures experienced by mouflon increased more slowly than temperatures at the weather station (males: 0.77 °C [95% confidence interval = 0.74-0.79] per 1 °C rise at the weather station, females: 0.75 °C [95% confidence interval = 0.73-0.76]) and more slowly than below these thresholds (males: 0.89 °C [95% confidence interval = 0.85-0.93], females: 0.94 °C [95% confidence interval = 0.89-0.98]). These findings suggested that habitat selection contributes to buffer mouflon against summer conditions but raised questions on energetic and fitness costs in areas where summer temperatures are predicted to increase further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal partitioning of daily activities between species may promote coexistence within animal communities by reducing behavioural interference, particularly when species highly overlap in the use of space and resources. Such a strategy may be used by Alpine chamois ( Rupicapra rupicapra rupicapra) when in the presence of mouflon ( Ovis gmelini musimon × Ovis sp.), an introduced highly gregarious species with a broader ecological niche, overlapping with that of chamois. Using simultaneous monitoring of 29 Global Positioning System-collared chamois and 12 mouflon, we assessed the temporal variation in activity patterns of chamois amongst two subpopulations: one without mouflon and one with mouflon, during January and August, which are the two most extreme periods of spatial overlap of mouflon with chamois distribution. Substantial differences in activity patterns between chamois and mouflon were observed (mean 13.8 ± 10.5% in January and 10.6 ± 11.6% in August). More subtle differences appeared between both subpopulations of chamois and persisted, regardless of the spatial overlap with mouflon (3.2 ± 1.8% in January and 2.6 ± 1.5% in August), thus highlighting that there is no behavioural interference from mouflon on chamois. Our findings suggest that the temporal partitioning of daily activities between chamois and mouflon, although probably a result of species-specific adaptations to environmental conditions, may contribute to their coexistence. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2014, 111, 621-626. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which determined the factors that contribute to the success of fixed global position systems (GPS) in monitoring free-ranging mouflon. The behavioral and environmental factors which affected the success of monitoring depended on the temperature and on whether the mouflons were in a resting position or were actively ranging their habitat. It reveals that fix success was higher in active animals than in resting ones at an average temperature of 13.8° Centigrade but remained relatively similar at lower temperatures. However, fix success significantly decreased in resting animals when temperatures increased above the average temperature. Habitats which were exposed to open skies also contributed positively to GPS fix successes.