ECOL 485 Lecture Notes - Lecture 40: Banner-Tailed Kangaroo Rat, Birmingham City Centre, Inclusive Fitness
3 Dec 2018
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Department
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Space and habitat use
● Continuum of space use
○ Nomadic
○ Home range
○ Home range w/ core area
○ Territorial
● Home range- area in which animals spend most of time engaged in normal
activities- daily needs are met, tends to not be defended and can be used by
other animals of the same species
○ Core area- main area where species is and spends most of time
○ Factor affecting home range size
■ Body size energetics and the economics of energy
■ Males often transverse larger areas than females, except in
monogamous systems- mating systems probably have a strong
influence on the space use of a majority mammals
■ Climate- large marsupials in australia occupy large home ranges
because low quality habitat
■ Seasonal variation in the availability of mates, food cover climate
and predation risk
○ Territoriality- where a species protected area from intruders
■ Relatively uniform distribution of individuals on the landscape as
territory owners defend resources
■ Behaviors of defense limit access to resources and ultimately can
control pop. size in a given area
■ Defense of territories ca through direct interactions that can
escalate to conflict between individuals
■ Economic defensibility- Combination of cost and benefits to
protecting something
● Dispersal- the one-way movement of an individual from one home range to
another in which it establishes a new home range
○ Some females will disperse, sometimes both sexes disperse (one sex
goes further than the other)
○ Dipodomys spectabilis
■ Females disperse farther than males
○ Types:
■ Natal- moving to reproduce
■ Breeding- movement to a new home range between reproductive
events
○ Hypothesis
Document Summary
Home range- area in which animals spend most of time engaged in normal activities- daily needs are met, tends to not be defended and can be used by other animals of the same species. Core area- main area where species is and spends most of time. Body size energetics and the economics of energy. Males often transverse larger areas than females, except in monogamous systems- mating systems probably have a strong influence on the space use of a majority mammals. Climate- large marsupials in australia occupy large home ranges because low quality habitat. Seasonal variation in the availability of mates, food cover climate and predation risk. Territoriality- where a species protected area from intruders. Relatively uniform distribution of individuals on the landscape as territory owners defend resources. Behaviors of defense limit access to resources and ultimately can control pop. size in a given area. Defense of territories ca through direct interactions that can escalate to conflict between individuals.
