Soulsbury, Carl D. and Iossa, Graziella and Baker, Philip J. and White, Piran C. L. and Harris, Stephen (2011) Behavioral and spatial analysis of extraterritorial movements in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Journal of Mammalogy, 92 (1). pp. 190-199. ISSN 0022-2372

PDF Soulsbury_et_al._2011_(extra_territorial_movements).pdf - Whole Document Restricted to Repository staff only Download (221Kb)

Abstract

Movements away from the natal or home territory are important to many ecological processes, including gene flow, population regulation, and disease epidemiology, yet quantitative data on these behaviors are lacking. Red foxes exhibit 2 periods of extraterritorial movements: when an individual disperses and when males search neighboring territories for extrapair copulations during the breeding season. Using radiotracking data collected at 5-min interfix intervals, we compared movement parameters, including distance moved, speed of movement, and turning angles, of dispersal and reproductive movements to those made during normal territorial movements; the instantaneous separation distances of dispersing and extraterritorial movements to the movements of resident adults; and the frequency of locations of 95%, 60%, and 30% harmonic mean isopleths of adult fox home territories to randomly generated fox movements. Foxes making reproductive movements traveled farther than when undertaking other types of movement, and dispersal movements were straighter. Reproductive and dispersal movements were faster than territorial movements and also differed in intensity of search and thoroughness. Foxes making dispersal movements avoided direct contact with territorial adults and moved through peripheral areas of territories. The converse was true for reproductive movements. Although similar in some basic characteristics, dispersal and reproductive movements are fundamentally different both behaviorally and spatially and are likely to have different ultimate purposes and contrasting effects on spatial processes such as disease transmission.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Movements away from the natal or home territory are important to many ecological processes, including gene flow, population regulation, and disease epidemiology, yet quantitative data on these behaviors are lacking. Red foxes exhibit 2 periods of extraterritorial movements: when an individual disperses and when males search neighboring territories for extrapair copulations during the breeding season. Using radiotracking data collected at 5-min interfix intervals, we compared movement parameters, including distance moved, speed of movement, and turning angles, of dispersal and reproductive movements to those made during normal territorial movements; the instantaneous separation distances of dispersing and extraterritorial movements to the movements of resident adults; and the frequency of locations of 95%, 60%, and 30% harmonic mean isopleths of adult fox home territories to randomly generated fox movements. Foxes making reproductive movements traveled farther than when undertaking other types of movement, and dispersal movements were straighter. Reproductive and dispersal movements were faster than territorial movements and also differed in intensity of search and thoroughness. Foxes making dispersal movements avoided direct contact with territorial adults and moved through peripheral areas of territories. The converse was true for reproductive movements. Although similar in some basic characteristics, dispersal and reproductive movements are fundamentally different both behaviorally and spatially and are likely to have different ultimate purposes and contrasting effects on spatial processes such as disease transmission.
Keywords:	red fox, dispersal, reproductive movements, contact rates, disease transmission
Subjects:	C Biological Sciences > C120 Behavioural Biology C Biological Sciences > C300 Zoology
Divisions:	College of Sciences > Faculty of Science > School of Life Sciences
Depositing User:	Carl Soulsbury
Date Deposited:	03 Oct 2012 15:16
Last Modified:	13 Mar 2013 09:15
URI:	http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/6408

Actions (login required)

View Item