Mating strategies in mammalian herbivores are adapted to the dispersion of females, and female dispersion is mainly determined by resource dispersion, although it is frequently unclear whether females may also be influenced by the location of males. In the red deer (Cervus elaphus) the distribution of females before the rut predicts the places were males should establish territories and even their relative success. However, the number of females using the mating areas in Donana increases during the rut. We observed 20 areas of meadows, used by grazing females before the rue. At the onset of the rut, the number of females increased in some of these areas and decreased in others, and the opposite pattern was found after the rutting period. Changes in the vegetation at mating and nonmating areas could not account for the changes in female distribution; even some of the highest quality meadows were vacated by females during rut. In selecting the mating areas, females avoided isolated small meadows within the scrub area and preferred larger meadows where a number of neighboring rutting males could be found. Females also avoided those areas heavily used by fallow deer (Dama dama), a competing sympatric species. We found that females suffered less sexual harassment when in larger harems and when their harem was surrounded by other harems. Our results, together with those in the Literature about this population, indicate that red deer females collect during the early rut in mating areas containing several rutting males, although once there they may select particular sites based on availability of food rather than based on the presence of a particular male. By joining harems in large meadows they are less harassed, and at the same time they probably increase their chances of mating with highly competitive males. The results from Donana support the idea that harassment avoidance may lead to female movements to areas with male territories without lek breeding or female comparison of male phenotypes and may bring an insight into those factors leading to clumps of male territories and leks.
