Home range size and overlap in female root voles: effects of season and density
Katrine S. Hoset,
Jean-François Le Galliard,
Gry Gundersen and
Harald Steen
Behavioral Ecology, 2008, vol. 19, issue 1, 139-145
Abstract:
In small mammals living in highly seasonal environments, observational studies show that female home range size and exclusiveness are smaller in the nonbreeding winter season than in the breeding summer season. This has led to the notion that nonbreeding females are more social and decrease territorial behavior during winter. However, because territoriality decreases with increasing population density, and density normally increases during the breeding season, the effects of density and season on social structure are usually confounded. To find out which of the 2 factors explains space use, we experimentally established 3 high-density and 3 low-density root vole (Microtus oeconomus) populations in late spring and monitored the populations into the nonbreeding winter season. Population sizes were controlled throughout the breeding period to minimize seasonal variation in density. Home range sizes were larger in founder females than in field-born females but did not change with season or density. Area exclusively used by individual females was lower in winter than summer, and founder females decreased exclusiveness as density increased. We argue that this seasonal pattern of space use might be caused by variation in benefits of group living, whereas founder females also responded to density-dependent competition by reducing area exclusively used. Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press.
Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arm112 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:beheco:v:19:y:2008:i:1:p:139-145
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals
Access Statistics for this article
Behavioral Ecology is currently edited by Louise Barrett
More articles in Behavioral Ecology from International Society for Behavioral Ecology Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().