Dietary overlap of three ungulate species in the Palava Biosphere Reserve

The Palava Biosphere Reserve (South Moravia, Czech Republic) contains a variety of habitat types and maintains a high diversity of plant and animal species. Within this unique region is situated a game reserve for ungulate species. This paper presents the results of dietary similarity and dietary overlap of three ungulate species: the wild goat (Capra aegagrus) the mouflon (Ovis musimon) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) within the reserve, including competition and coexistence of these species. The qualitative and quantitative similarity of diet of ail three animal species varies between 20 and 96%. The greatest similarity was found for the goat and mouflon diet and lowest for the roe deer and mouflon. There was marked competition for food during the winter months, as all three species consume large amounts of broad-leaved sprouts. This intensive browsing has had a considerable negative impact on the vegetation.