Settlement in empty versus occupied habitats: an experimental study on bank voles |
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Authors: | Petter Glorvigen Ottar N Bjørnstad Harry P Andreassen Rolf A Ims |
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Institution: | 1. Faculty of Applied Ecology and Agricultural Sciences, Hedmark University College, Campus Evenstad, 2480 Koppang, Norway;2. Department of Entomology and Biology, Pennsylvania State University, 16802 University Park, PA, USA;3. Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, University of Tromsø, 9037 Tromsø, Norway |
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Abstract: | Despite the recognised importance of colonisation (settlement in empty habitats) and immigration (settlement in an established
population) to species persistence and evolution few have investigated these processes in territorial mammals and how they
affect species’ traits. We translocated female bank voles (Myodes glareolus) onto an island (2.58 ha) in a two-stage experiment (stage 1: colonisation of empty population space and stage 2: immigration into an established population) to test (1) if colonisers and immigrants differ in probability of settlement and pregnancy,
and (2) if settlement is affected by cues of conspecifics, i.e., simulated deserted home ranges (SDHR) and resident presence.
Density was kept well below saturation in 8 temporally distinct population replicates over 3 years. SDHR and resident presence
neither attracted nor repelled colonisers and immigrants, respectively, and settlement was not different from a random model.
Probability of settlement tended to be higher in colonisers than immigrants and the probability of pregnancy was significantly
higher in colonisers; immigrants settling within the home range of residents had nearly zero probability of pregnancy. Colonisation
of empty habitat patches selected based on physical or resource based habitat features is apparently the optimal settlement
strategy of dispersing voles, because cues from conspecifics may provide ambiguous information and social factors may inhibit
settlement or delay reproduction in immigrants even at low population density. |
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Keywords: | Conspecific attraction Habitat selection Myodes Social fence Translocation |
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