Home range perturbations in Tamias striatus

Abstract

A 12-week experimental study on the responses of home range size and population density of eastern chipmunks, Tamias striatus, to perturbations in food resources was conducted at the Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology in Pennsylvania. The study involved a total of 97 animals and 1,036 captures. Home ranges were determined for all animals marked and captured four or more times. Mean home ranges were calculated for three different experimental periods; a before-seeding period, a seeding period, during which an essentially unlimited supply of a preferred food (sunflower seeds) was available, and a post-seeding period when all seeds were withdrawn. Home ranges during the seeding period contracted in response to the food source supplied in seed trays distributed throughout the plot. The differences between the before and during mean home ranges was significant (P<0.05). Home ranges subsequently expanded after removal of the seeds. The population density also increased over 50% during the seeding period, both in response to the abundant food source and the contraction of resident home ranges. The density subsequently declined to its initial level in the post-seeding period. The replacement of home ranges of chipmunks which died during the study by the establishment of new, similar home ranges by immigrants, and the expansion of existing home ranges by residents into the vacated areas was also observed.

Response of eastern chipmunks to single application spring prescribed fires on the Fernow Experimental Forest

“…Although unusual for most mammals (Harestad andBunnell 1979, Swingland andGreenwood 1983), the lack of home-range contrast between male and female chipmunks also is consistent with previous research (Blair 1942, Bowers et al 1990, Lacher and Mares 1996. Although chipmunks adjust home-range size according to resource availability (Mares et al 1976, Getty 1981b, Mares et al 1982, Mares and Lacher 1987, Bowers et al 1990), the functional similarity of home-range and core-area sizes between burn and control areas that we observed indicates little substantial resource availability differential.…”

“…Marked individuals rarely were observed moving into adjacent unburned forest stands, and for those living on the periphery of a burn, no telemetry locations outside of the burned stand were recorded. Our home-range estimates derived from telemetry fell within the wide range of values for chipmunks from live-trapping studies within the eastern deciduous forests of North America (Blair 1942, Smith 1942, Manville 1949, Yerger 1953and 1955, Forbes 1966, Dunford 1970, Forsyth and Smith 1973, Ickes 1974, Mares et al 1976, Elliott 1978, Lacher and Mares 1996. Although unusual for most mammals (Harestad andBunnell 1979, Swingland andGreenwood 1983), the lack of home-range contrast between male and female chipmunks also is consistent with previous research (Blair 1942, Bowers et al 1990, Lacher and Mares 1996.…”

“…Although numerous live-trapping studies have estimated home-range size for chipmunks in undisturbed habitats (Blair 1942, Smith 1942, Manville 1949, Yerger 1953and 1955, Forbes 1966, Dunford 1970, Forsyth and Smith 1973, Ickes 1974, Mares et al 1976, Elliott 1978, Lacher and Mares 1996, reliable radiotelemetry data on home-range structure and variability are lacking for chipmunks in eastern deciduous forests treated with prescribed fire. Moreover, Hackett and Trevor-Deutsch (1982) and Bergstrom (1988) found live-trapping greatly underestimated chipmunk and various other Tamias spp.…”

“…Nonetheless, chipmunk home ranges are not static, with home-range size fluctuating with resource availability (Allen 1938, Mares et al 1976, Mares and Lacher 1987, Getty 1981b, Bowers et al 1990) and reproductive condition (Bowers and Carr 1992). As larder hoarders, hard-mast caches are vital to their survival during low-forage availability periods, such as early spring prior to green-up and substantial soft fruit production.…”

Home range, range overlap, and site fidelity of introduced Siberian chipmunks in a suburban French forest

“…Food quality, predation avoidance, and burrow or refuge availability can affect the home range size of sciurids (Edelman and Koprowski 2006;Harestad and Bunnel 1979;Lacher and Mares 1996;Mares et al 1976;Martinsen 1968;Wauters and Dhonts 1992). The home range size of squirrel species can also vary with density (Forsyth and Smith 1973;Lurz et al 2000).…”