Territorial bequeathal by red squirrel mothers |
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Authors: | Price, Karen Boutin, Stan |
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Affiliation: | Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada Department of Zoology, University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1, Canada |
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Abstract: | Red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) defend individual, food-basedterritories year round. These territories are crucial for overwintersurvival, yet some female red squirrels in northern populationsbequeath their territories to offspring and search for a newone. Bequeathal involves active, strategic dispersal by breedingfemales. Our study documents this unusual behavior and investigatesits correlates in two red squirrel populations in northern Canada.Thirty percent of breeding females dispersed. Bequeathal wasrelated to breeding date, with late-breeding females more oftendispersing, but was not related detectably to female conditionor territory quality. As an underlying trade-off, early-bornjuveniles more likely acquired a territory independently, butearly-breeding females lost mass and may have increased theirrisk of territory loss. We suggest that bequeathal has evolvedas a consequence of condition dependence in breeding date coupledwith limited resources. |
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Keywords: | territory breeding dispersal condition-dependence Tamiasciurus hudsonicus bequeathal. |
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