Individual behaviour of adult male mountain
goats was studied using the same five behavioural
categories described for bighorn sheep during the
pre-rut and the rut, but using scan sampling (Martin
& Bateson 1993) at 10-min intervals (Mainguy &
Coˆ te´ 2008) instead of continuous focal observations,
as this study was conducted independently of the
one at Sheep River. Activity budgets were conducted
as long as goats were in sight for a period of at least
1 h and at distances ranging from 200 to 700 m. A
total of 1906 and 452 goat-hours of observations
were collected (averaging 54.3 and 14.4 h of observation
per individual, n = 37 different adult males
monitored over 1–3 yr) for the pre-rut and the rut
respectively. Because of the sampling method used
in mountain goats and as it was not always possible
to determine the reproductive status of all females
present in a group (i.e. anoestrus or in oestrus),
males could not always be assigned to one of the
five possible mating situations as in bighorn sheep
(i.e. either one of three mating tactics, investigating
or searching) and thus, no data were available for
the individual repartition of time between tactics in
mountain goats. In both species, however, we considered
time spent rutting as the total amount of
time spent in social activities, standing and other
(which consisted mainly in locomotion) during the
rut, whereas non-rutting time was defined as the
cumulative time spent either foraging or lying. We
considered standing and moving as part of ‘active’
rutting behaviours (Maher & Byers 1987; Willisch &
Ingold 2007), as these were likely performed in the
context of mating activities. For instance, we previously
suggested in mountain goats that standing
could allow sexually active males to look for potential
mates and competitors (Mainguy & Coˆ te´ 2008;
Mainguy et al. 2008), as all the activity budgets that
we recorded were conducted in the presence of adult
females that were near or in estrus.
Individual behaviour of adult male mountain
goats was studied using the same five behavioural
categories described for bighorn sheep during the
pre-rut and the rut, but using scan sampling (Martin
& Bateson 1993) at 10-min intervals (Mainguy &
Coˆ te´ 2008) instead of continuous focal observations,
as this study was conducted independently of the
one at Sheep River. Activity budgets were conducted
as long as goats were in sight for a period of at least
1 h and at distances ranging from 200 to 700 m. A
total of 1906 and 452 goat-hours of observations
were collected (averaging 54.3 and 14.4 h of observation
per individual, n = 37 different adult males
monitored over 1–3 yr) for the pre-rut and the rut
respectively. Because of the sampling method used
in mountain goats and as it was not always possible
to determine the reproductive status of all females
present in a group (i.e. anoestrus or in oestrus),
males could not always be assigned to one of the
five possible mating situations as in bighorn sheep
(i.e. either one of three mating tactics, investigating
or searching) and thus, no data were available for
the individual repartition of time between tactics in
mountain goats. In both species, however, we considered
time spent rutting as the total amount of
time spent in social activities, standing and other
(which consisted mainly in locomotion) during the
rut, whereas non-rutting time was defined as the
cumulative time spent either foraging or lying. We
considered standing and moving as part of ‘active’
rutting behaviours (Maher & Byers 1987; Willisch &
Ingold 2007), as these were likely performed in the
context of mating activities. For instance, we previously
suggested in mountain goats that standing
could allow sexually active males to look for potential
mates and competitors (Mainguy & Coˆ te´ 2008;
Mainguy et al. 2008), as all the activity budgets that
we recorded were conducted in the presence of adult
females that were near or in estrus.
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