Density effects on juvenile female dispersal in a population of golden-mantled ground squirrels

Abstract

Dispersal, the movement of individual from their natal site to breeding sites or between breeding sites, is one of many mechanisms that species establish to increase the gene flow among population. Population density, which associates with competition, can have a great effect on the dispersal rate through increasing resource competition and agonistic interaction between individuals. Observation on an asocial species, the golden-mantled ground squirrel, shows that despite being a species with male-biased dispersal, many females exhibit natal dispersal. In this study, we looked at whether total and local density have any effect of female natal dispersal. We used 25 years of collected data on female juvenile location and activity at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory to test our hypotheses: density has a positive effect on female juvenile golden-mantled ground squirrel dispersal. Our result shown that neither total nor local density have significant effect on dispersal. Thus, it is suggested that other social and environmental factors is the main contribution in the dispersal of this asocial species such as female kin density, food availability or predator presence.

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