Response to resources and parasites depends on health status in extensively grazed sheep.

ABSTRACT: A fundamental question in animal ecology is how an individual's internal state and the external environment together shape species distributions across habitats. The increasing availability of biologgers is driving a revolution in answering this question in a wide range of species. In this study, the position of sheep (Ovis aries) from Global Positioning System collars was integrated with remote sensing data, field sampling of parasite distributions, and parasite load and health measures for each tagged individual. This allowed inter-individual variation in habitat use to be examined. Once controlling for a positive relationship between vegetation productivity and tick abundance, healthier individuals spent more of their time at sites with higher vegetation productivity, while less

SUBMITTER: Liddell C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7031671 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature