Summer habitat use and activity patterns of domestic sheep on coniferous forest range in southern Norway
Issue Date
1991-01-01Keywords
habitat selectionactivity
Picea abies
Dryopteris
behavior
behavior patterns
grazing trials
Norway
summer
diets
sheep
grazing behavior
rangelands
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Warren, J. T., & Mysterud, I. (1991). Summer habitat use and activity patterns of domestic sheep on coniferous forest range in southern Norway. Journal of Range Management, 44(1), 2-6.Publisher
Society for Range ManagementJournal
Journal of Range ManagementDOI
10.2307/4002628Additional Links
https://rangelands.org/Abstract
Eight domestic sheep (Ovis aries L.) ewes were fitted with radio collars and tracked during the 1985 grazing season in Trysll, Hedmark County, southern Norway. The ewes were relocated 761 times between 11 June until 13 September. All relocations were used to describe activity patterns, and 565 were plotted and used to estimate habitat use. Range use was initially concentrated on and about areas previously referenced by man (e.g., abandoned homesteads, old fields) and on adjacent stands of rich spruce/fern (Picea abies (L) Karsten)/(Dryopteris spp.) forest. This preference was displayed especially during the day; poorer forest types were used more in the evening and at night. As the season progressed, use of the meadow/old-field habitat type declined in favor of the forest types. Activity peaks were at mid-morning and late evening. Animals camped in groups at midday and at night, always further upslope at night than during the day. Sheep were less active in cold, wet weather. Habitat selection and activity patterns observed in this study were similar to those of both wild and domestic sheep studied elsewhere.Type
textArticle
Language
enISSN
0022-409Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.2307/4002628