Ž . Applied Animal Behaviour Science 58 1998 281–292 Characteristic activity patterns of female mouflons ž / OÕis orientalis musimon in the lambing period Jan Langbein a, ) , Jurgen Streich b , Klaus M. Scheibe b ¨ a Institut fur Angewandte Agrarokologie, FG Nutztierokologie, Wilhelm-Stahl-Allee 2 r Haus 5, D-18196 ¨ ¨ ¨ Dummerstorf, Germany b Institut fur Zoo- und Wildtierforschung im ForschungsÕerbund Berlin e.V., Alfred-Kowalke-Straße 17, ¨ D-10315 Berlin, Germany Accepted 19 December 1997 Abstract Ž . We analysed the activity pattern of wild mouflon sheep OÕis orientalis musimon in the lambing season for 2 consecutive years. The activity data was recorded automatically by the storage-telemetry-system, ETHOSYS. The animals were equipped with electronic collars of about 300 g, which continuously sampled behaviour in time intervals of 30 min over 50 days. Lambing was accompanied by decreased daily activity budgets of 3–5 consecutive days. The sequence of daily activity budgets around parturition were compared with other periods of lower activity using discriminant analysis. Birth patterns were found to differ significantly in width, depth and shape from normal fluctuations in daily activity. Calculating the discriminant function from the 1995 data, we accurately predicted the 1996 minima in activity caused by lambing. The jackknife method, providing an even more precise misclassification rate, was 93% accurate. Changes in activity patterns and space utilization in the period peri partum in the wild are discussed in contrast to what happens for animals at pasture or in enclosures. q 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: OÕis orientalis musimon; Mouflon; Parturition; Activity budget; Discriminant analysis 1. Introduction For ungulates, changes have been reported in patterns of activity and daily activity budget during the lambing period. Because of the tendency of females to hide during ) Corresponding author. Tel.: q49-38208-13611; fax: q49-38208-60745; e-mail:ingo.koenig@gast.uni- rostock.de 0168-1591r98r$19.00 q 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Ž . PII S0168-1591 98 00106-3