Artificial Water Troughs Use by the Mountain Ungulate Ovis gmelini ophion (Cyprus Mouflon) at Pafos Forest

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Human activities often affect the access and supply of water to wildlife, e.g., via water pumping, spring diversion, dam construction, and fencing. For this reason, wildlife managers have been provisioning surface water to wildlife in arid/semi-arid ecosystems for decades, typically via the construction of artificial water points. In this study, camera traps were used to examine for the first time the Cyprus mouflon’s (Ovis gmelini ophion) use of artificial water troughs in Pafos Forest—the stronghold of Cyprus’ threatened and endemic wild sheep. The ten monitored water troughs are part of the larger grid installed by the Game and Fauna Service to provide water to the mouflon during the prolonged dry season. Mouflon drinking was positively related to temperature, visiting the water troughs significantly more during late morning and midday hours of warmer days. There was no evidence of mouflon temporally avoiding water troughs used by predators (red foxes, feral dogs) or during hunting days. The findings suggest that water provision can be an important management tool for mediating, partially at least, the impact of global warming on water-dependent species such as the Cyprus mouflon, and therefore, additional studies focused on improving water trough effectiveness (e.g., regarding their spatiotemporal deployment) are advised. ABSTRACT: For large herbivores inhabiting arid/semi-arid environments, water can be a limiting resource affecting their distribution and abundance for periods when water requirements are not met via forage. The Cyprus mouflon (Ovis gmelini ophion) is such a species, which is endemic to the mountain habitats of Cyprus. Recognizing water scarcity to be a major pressure to the mouflon, and with global warming projected to intensify hot and dry periods in the region, the Game and Fauna Service has been maintaining a network of locally designed watering troughs in Pafos Forest—the mouflon’s stronghold—since 1997. This study describes the mouflon’s use of the water troughs and examines whether visitation rates differed at the daily or weekly scale in response to environmental, climatic or anthropogenic parameters. Using camera traps, ten troughs were monitored from September 2017 to March 2018 (1,065 days; range 29–164 days per trough). Mouflon were detected at seven troughs (mean herd size 1.5 ± 1.2) during 373 independent detections (≥30 min interval between photographs), with visits peaking during late morning and midday hours. Generalized mixed-effect models showed mouflon visiting water troughs more frequently during hotter days, regardless of recent precipitation. Visits were also more frequent at water troughs located close to tar roads. Moreover, there was no evidence of mouflon avoiding water troughs used by predators (red foxes, feral dogs) at either daily or weekly scale, or during hunting days. The study supports the value of artificial water troughs for mediating, partially at least, the effects of climate change on mountain ungulates such as the Cyprus mouflon. Additional studies are proposed that will examine both mouflon drinking patterns across all seasons and ways of improving the effectiveness of the current water trough grid.