The smell of desperadoes? Beavers distinguish between dominant and subordinate intruders

Tinnesand, Helga Veronica; Jojola, Susan M.; Zedrosser, Andreas; Rosell, Frank

doi:10.1007/s00265-013-1512-y

Cited by 21 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…In contrast dispersing subadults searching for a colony may have 54 little choice but to challenge territory-holders by overmarking and aggressive behavior 55 (Tinnesand et al, 2013 Common hypotheses regarding aggression and territoriality in beavers include: (1) males are 63 more likely than females to engage in aggressive encounters; (2) dispersing subadults are more 64 prone to attacks than residents of established colonies; (3) aggressive encounters are more likely 65 to occur during the dispersal season; and (4) colonies with discrete, easily defended territories 66 such as those on small streams are less prone to aggressive encounters than beavers inhabiting 67 open systems such as large wetlands, lakes or rivers (Nordstrom, 1972 We removed pelts from beavers as described by Hall and Obbard (1987), labeled them and 99 placed them in a freezer for processing at a later date. Examination of exposed genitalia allowed 100 us to determine sex (Osborn, 1955).…”

Section: Introduction 30mentioning

confidence: 99%

Conspecific Aggression by Beavers (Castor canadensis) in the Sangamon River Basin in Central Illinois: Correlates with Habitat, Age, Sex and Season

Crawford¹,

Bluett²,

Schauber³

2015

The American Midland Naturalist

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Section: Introduction 30mentioning

confidence: 99%

Conspecific Aggression by Beavers (Castor canadensis) in the Sangamon River Basin in Central Illinois: Correlates with Habitat, Age, Sex and Season

Crawford¹,

Bluett²,

Schauber³

2015

The American Midland Naturalist

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“…Beavers in the study area are monitored every year between March and November as part of a long-term capture-mark-recapture study (since 1998) for individual identification (micro-chip and ear-tags) and data acquisition (i.e. Campbell et al 2013;Cross et al 2014;Tinnesand et al 2013). Since 1999, beavers have also been tagged with tracking devices such as VHF transmitters (Herr and Rosell 2004;Ranheim et al 2004), GPS systems (Steyaert et al 2015) and tri-axial accelerometers (Graf et al 2015).…”

Section: Study Area and Animalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-term effects of tagging on activity and movement patterns of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber)

et al. 2016

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Bio-logging is becoming increasingly popular amongst wildlife researchers, providing a remote way of monitoring free-ranging animals in their natural habitats. However, capturing and tagging can be stressful and may alter animal behaviour. In this study, we investigated whether tagging altered activity and movement patterns of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) during the first week after release, predicting that beavers would be less active, travel shorter distances and stay closer to the lodge in the first nights after the tagging event. We captured 29 dominant free-ranging beavers (12 females, 17 males) in Telemark county, Norway, and tagged them with GPS units (n = 23; 12 males, 11 females) and triaxial acceleration data loggers (n = 14; 9 males, 5 females). Accelerometer data was used to investigate activity levels (using mean overall dynamic body acceleration ODBA and principal activity periods), while GPS data was used to determine movement patterns (using distance moved and lodge displacement rate). Tagging effects were apparent only in activity levels of beavers, where we found lower mean ODBA values after release although the small effect size (Cohen's d = 0.17) indicates only a minimal difference in activity. Neither principal activity periods nor distances moved or lodge displacement rate changed within the first week after release, which indicates that beavers were active and post-release space use within the territory was not affected by the tagging event in this respect.

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“…The question arises how animals detect changes in population density? First, scent‐marking activity by dispersers might be used by territory owners to evaluate the level of intruder pressure (Lazaro‐Perea, Snowdon, & de Fátima Arruda, ; Tinnesand et al, ). Second, both territory owners and subordinates conduct forays outside their own territory, for example to gain information for extra‐pair copulation and dispersal opportunities (Debeffe et al, , ), potentially allowing them to evaluate family sizes of neighbouring and distant territories (Mayer, Zedrosser, & Rosell, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We collected castoreum for the experiments from 27 adult (≥2 years old) subordinate individuals from distant territories (i.e. a different river than where the experiment was conducted) (Tinnesand, Jojola, Zedrosser, & Rosell, ), because territory owners were shown to react stronger to strangers (Rosell & Bjørkøyli, ) and subordinates (Tinnesand et al, ). For different territories, we used castoreum from different individuals to avoid pseudo‐replication (Kroodsma, Byers, Goodale, Johnson, & Liu, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causes and consequences of inverse density‐dependent territorial behaviour and aggression in a monogamous mammal

Mayer

Frank

Zedrosser

et al. 2019

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Territoriality is an important process shaping population dynamics, and the defence of a territory is crucial for individuals to increase the duration of territory occupancy and, consequently, reproductive success. However, little is known about how the frequency of territory intrusions and subsequent territorial behaviours and aggression by territory owners are affected by external factors, such as population density. This is important because it can affect mate change (the replacement of one pair member) and dispersal, a key ecological process. The aim of this study was to investigate the behavioural and spatial response of territory owners to intruder pressure as a function of population density in a territorial, monogamous mammal, the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber). Using a combination of GPS technology, scent experiments, camera trap data and tail scar observations from an individual‐based long‐term study, we investigated the factors influencing spatial movement patterns by territory owners in response to a simulated intruder and the factors affecting territory intrusions. We found consistent inverse density‐dependent patterns in territorial behaviours and evidence of conspecific aggression. At lower densities, territory owners detected more simulated intrusions, showed more territorial reactions and experienced increased conspecific aggression as indicated by tail scars, suggesting increased intruder pressure. Inverse density‐dependent territorial behaviour and aggression suggest a potential mechanistic link between inverse density‐dependent natal dispersal and mate change. At low population densities, increased dispersal amplifies intruder pressure, leading to the observed increases in territorial behaviours, conspecific aggression and previously observed mate turnover, which in turn might increase natal dispersal. Our study demonstrates how population density can affect the behaviour and space use of individuals, which is important for territory occupancy and fitness.

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The smell of desperadoes? Beavers distinguish between dominant and subordinate intruders

Cited by 21 publications

References 73 publications

Conspecific Aggression by Beavers (Castor canadensis) in the Sangamon River Basin in Central Illinois: Correlates with Habitat, Age, Sex and Season

Conspecific Aggression by Beavers (Castor canadensis) in the Sangamon River Basin in Central Illinois: Correlates with Habitat, Age, Sex and Season

Short-term effects of tagging on activity and movement patterns of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber)

Causes and consequences of inverse density‐dependent territorial behaviour and aggression in a monogamous mammal

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