What do territory owners defend against?

Hinsch, Martin; Komdeur, Jan

doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.2356

Cited by 35 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 108 publications

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“…Our results show that gorillas not only avoid their neighbours' actual location, but factor in the location of their conspecifics' ranges in the movement decisions they make. The importance of location implies an understanding of the "ownership" of specific geographic regions -usually associated with territoriality 1,10 . The increase in avoidance of other groups closer to their home range centre suggests there may be an increase in the costs of between-group interaction in these regions, consistent with a stronger defensive response from groups when closer to the center of their ranges.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Western gorilla space use suggests territoriality

Morrison

Dunn

Illera³

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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The evolutionary origins of how modern humans share and use space are often modelled on the territorial-based violence of chimpanzees, with limited comparison to other apes. Gorillas are widely assumed to be non-territorial due to their large home ranges, extensive range overlap, and limited inter-group aggression. Using large-scale camera trapping, we monitored western gorillas in Republic of Congo across 60 km 2. Avoidance patterns between groups were consistent with an understanding of the "ownership" of specific regions, with greater avoidance of their neighbours the closer they were to their neighbours' home range centres. Groups also avoided larger groups' home ranges to a greater extent, consistent with stronger defensive responses from more dominant groups. Our results suggest that groups may show territoriality, defending core regions of their home ranges against neighbours, and mirror patterns common across human evolution, with core areas of resident dominance and larger zones of mutual tolerance. This implies western gorillas may be a key system for understanding how humans have evolved the capacity for extreme territorial-based violence and warfare, whilst also engaging in the strong affiliative inter-group relationships necessary for large-scale cooperation. Understanding how neighbours use and share space is fundamental to understanding a species' large-scale social system 1. Patterns of space use can have considerable impacts on the likelihood of neighbours encountering one another, and the location of such encounters can greatly influence the behaviour shown when they meet 2-4. One key example of this is in species showing territoriality, where rates of aggression shown to out-group individuals can differ drastically depending on the location relative to the group's territory 5-8. Territories are commonly defined as regions of a home range that are actively defended against intruders to enable exclusive use by the individual or social unit 9. However, there is considerable variation in how the term has been used in different study systems 10 and broader definitions of territoriality also include areas of priority use 1,11 , for example, through site-specific dominance 8,12. Territories can be defended using physical aggression or advertised using less costly alternatives such as scent marking, calls or displays; with a broad diversity of territorial behaviors observed both within and among species 11 , including humans 13. It has been increasingly suggested that defining territoriality as a binary trait cannot explain the full diversity of territorial behaviours observed 1,11,14-16. Territoriality may be better described by a continuum from extreme territoriality where neighbouring conspecifics impose a hard boundary on movement, to species with more flexible territory boundaries such as the black bear where territoriality can vary, geographically and temporally 11 , through to non-territorial species in which the ranges of neighbouring conspecifics do not constrain an individual or group's movem...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Western gorilla space use suggests territoriality

Morrison

Dunn

Illera³

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…However, studies that investigate territoriality have assumed intruder traits as fixed. At most, in experimental approaches, intruders have been putatively considered as non-territorial floaters or territory neighbors, aiming to obtain the territory, or expanding territory borders and/or stealing specific resources 2 . Therefore, we hypothesized that intruder traits influence the aggressive behavior of resident animals.…”

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confidence: 99%

Intruder traits modulate aggressive behavior of territory owners

Miyai

Sanches

Costa

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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The prior residence effect consists of a higher probability of territory owners to win a fight against intruders, as observed in several territorial species across animal kingdom. However, in investigations on territorial behavior, intruder traits have been assumed as fixed. Thus, we used a territorial species as experimental model to evaluate the effect of intruder traits on aggressive behavior of territory owners. During fights staged between territory owners and intruders, intruder traits, linked with visual signals of social status (dominant-subordinate position), modulate fighting behavior of territory owners, but prior residence effect still occurred. Intruder traits must be addressed more effectively for improving the theoretical understanding of territoriality.

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“…The home‐range concept, i.e. the notion that individual animals are spatially restricted, occurs in every branch of ecology and evolution, from the study of the underlying cognitive and behavioural mechanisms that lead to spatial fidelity (Schmidt, ; Hinsch & Komdeur, ; Hulse, Fowler, & Honig, ), to the genetic (Spear et al, ), demographic (Fretwell & Lucas, ), and macroecological (Kelt & Van Vuren, ) consequences. Accordingly, the home‐range concept is one of the most prevalent concepts in the ecological literature (>200,000 Google Scholar hits, 6550 in 2018 alone).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another important notion that many ecologists have retained from Burt's () seminal article is that home ranges should not include the locations that are visited during ‘excursions’ (Olson et al, ), which are interpreted as forays to acquire information but not resources directly (Doligez et al, ). This essentially resource‐based definition of the home range later raised a number of conceptual issues about the significance of territorial behaviours for home‐range studies (Fieberg & Börger, ; Riotte‐Lambert, Benhamou, & Chamaillé‐Jammes, ; Hinsch & Komdeur, ; Kirk et al, ). Species and individuals may exhibit spatial fidelity without being territorial, or may defend access to mating opportunities but not food resources (Maher & Lott, ; Low, ; Hinsch & Komdeur, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This essentially resource‐based definition of the home range later raised a number of conceptual issues about the significance of territorial behaviours for home‐range studies (Fieberg & Börger, ; Riotte‐Lambert, Benhamou, & Chamaillé‐Jammes, ; Hinsch & Komdeur, ; Kirk et al, ). Species and individuals may exhibit spatial fidelity without being territorial, or may defend access to mating opportunities but not food resources (Maher & Lott, ; Low, ; Hinsch & Komdeur, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The time frame of home‐range studies: from function to utilization

Péron

2019

Biological Reviews

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As technological and statistical innovations open new avenues in movement ecology, I review the fundamental implications of the time frame of home-range studies, with the aim of associating terminologies consistently with research objectives and methodologies. There is a fundamental distinction between (a) extrapolations of stationary distributions, associated with long time scales and aiming at asymptotic consistency, and (b) period-specific techniques, aiming at specificity but typically sensitive to the sampling design. I then review the difference between function and utilization in home-range studies. Most home-range studies are based on phenomenological descriptions of the time budgets of the study animals, not the function of the visited areas. I highlight emerging trends in automated pattern-recognition techniques for inference about function rather than utilization.

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What do territory owners defend against?

Cited by 35 publications

References 108 publications

Western gorilla space use suggests territoriality

Western gorilla space use suggests territoriality

Intruder traits modulate aggressive behavior of territory owners

The time frame of home‐range studies: from function to utilization

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