Human activities have dramatically altered the distribution and density of large herbivores worldwide, particularly on islands. For example, thousands of goats were abandoned to the mountains on Majorca Island, Spain, during the tourism boom in the 1960s. Though this mammal is common throughout the Majorcan mountain range, the impact of goats on the main mountain plant communities has not yet been evaluated. To fill this gap, we recorded goat fecal pellet accumulation and assessed the degree of browsing of 9 363 shrubs and trees located within 231 25-m² strips systematically distributed in two mountain regions of Majorca. We also recorded the degree of regeneration of woody plants inside the same strips. The environmental factors that significantly influenced pellet accumulation were altitude, rock cover, distance to roads and paths, distance to water, and slope. The correlations between the pellet index and degree of browsing depended on species palatability and abundance. Finally, the natural regeneration of plants was heterogeneously distributed and negatively correlated with pellet accumulation. This study indicates that high levels of browsing of unpalatable species in less preferred areas are a clear indicator of strong herbivore pressure, whereas the presence of nonbrowsed palatable species could indicate low herbivore presence. Moreover, this work demonstrates that the relative abundance of fecal pellets is a good indicator of the pressure exerted by feral goats on vegetation at a fine scale. The simple pellet index used in this work correlates strongly with vegetation damage; thus, it could represent a valuable innovative tool to inform sustainable management of feral goat populations in not only Majorca but probably also other Mediterranean islands.

人类活动已经极大地改变了全世界大型食草动物的分布和密度，特别是在岛屿上。例如，在1960年代旅游业繁荣时期，数千只山羊被遗弃在西班牙马略卡岛的山上。尽管这种哺乳动物在马略卡山脉中很常见，但是山羊对主要山地植物群落的影响尚未得到评估。为了填补这一空白，我们记录了山羊粪便颗粒的积累情况，并评估了位于231 25 m ²内的9 363株灌木和树木的浏览程度条带系统地分布在马略卡岛的两个山区。我们还记录了同一条带中木本植物的再生程度。严重影响颗粒物堆积的环境因素包括海拔高度，岩石覆盖物，与道路和路径的距离，与水的距离以及坡度。颗粒指数与浏览度之间的相关性取决于物种的适口性和丰度。最后，植物的自然再生是异质分布的，并且与颗粒的积累负相关。这项研究表明，在不太偏爱的地区高浏览不宜食用的物种是食草动物强压力的明显指标，而未浏览的可口物种的存在则表明草食动物的存在较低。此外，这项工作表明粪便颗粒的相对丰度很好地表明了野山羊在较小规模上对植被施加的压力。这项工作中使用的简单颗粒指数与植被破坏密切相关。因此，它可能是一种有价值的创新工具，可为马洛卡岛乃至其他地中海岛屿的野山羊种群的可持续管理提供信息。