Social behavior and population dynamics of marmots
Abstract
Population dynamics and social behavior of 5 populations were studied for 10 yr. Agonistic behavior characterized social interactions among adult females and yearlings who were subordinate. Rates of amicable and of agonistic behavior varied widely within a harem from year to year and among harems in any given year. Mean interaction rate and mean number of residents were unrelated. Rates of amicable behavior were not related to population density in any colony; the rate of agonistic behavior was associated with population density only in one colony. Rates of amicable and of agonistic behavior between adult males and yearling females, between yearling females and adult females, and among adult females were independent of measures of population density whether data from all colonies were lumped or whether colonies were treated separately. There was no significant relationship between the mean size of home ranges and the mean number of resident adult females. The mean number of resident females was significantly and positively correlated with the percent overlap of home ranges. Patterns of social behavior and home range were slightly related. Female yearlings were more likely to become residents if their home ranges overlapped those of adult females by more than 50 %. Recruitment of females was associated with a high percentage overlap of home ranges and with social tolerance; decline in the number of residents, a small number of residents, or a lack of recruitment of new residents was associated with social intolerance. A model relating social behavior to population changes emphasizes behavioral density, a function of the number of animals of each behavioral type present in the population, as the factor controlling recruitment.
Local Knowledge Graph (4 entities)
Related Works
Items connected by shared entities, co-authorship, citations, or semantic similarity.