Objectives:

1- To determine the inclination of areas favored by sheep.

2- To determine the distance of those areas to escape zones.

3- To determine the visibility of areas favored by sheep.

4- To determine the vegetation associations with the presence of bighorn sheep.

5- To find out if there is a sexual segregation in habitat use by the bighorn sheep at Carmen Island, Baja California Sur.

During January-August 1998, habitat preferences by the bighorn sheep at Carmen Island were determined, focused on the northern half of the island, in the Arroyo Blanco, Tintorera –Otho and the hills around the water sources.

To establish the habitat evaluation parcels, recent tracks, fecal groups, resting places and other were considered, or the precise places were direct observation of sheep were made. The distance to the escape zones were measured for each parcel, as well as the visibility to 20 and 40 meters, inclination angle and vegetation type.

170 parcels were analyzed, 42 by direct observation of sheep and 128 by means of tracks, finding that the main distance to escape zones was 16 meters. Visibility at 20 meters was 64.83% and to 40m meters was 43.19%, whereas main inclination angle was 33 degrees.

The dominant vegetation type observed at most parcels was sub-inermis microphyle bush, composed mainly of deciduous plants such as Bursera microphylla (torote), Jatropha cuneata (matacora) and Gossypium harknessii (algodón cimarrón).