Changes in selection of resources with reproductive state in a montane ungulate.

ABSTRACT: Animals select habitats based on food, water, space, and cover. Each of those components are essential to the ability of an individual to survive and reproduce in a particular habitat. Selection of resources is linked to reproductive fitness and individuals likely vary in how they select resources relative to their reproductive state: during pregnancy, while provisioning young when nutritional needs of the mother are high, but offspring are vulnerable to predation, or if they lose young to mortality. We investigated the effects of reproductive state on selection of resources by maternal female desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) by comparing selection during the last trimester of gestation, following parturition when females were provisioning dependent young, and if the female l

SUBMITTER: Blum ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10077753 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature