HABITAT, FOOD AVAILABILITY AND GROUP TERRITORIALITY IN THE EUROPEAN BADGER, MELES-MELES
HABITAT, FOOD AVAILABILITY AND GROUP TERRITORIALITY IN THE EUROPEAN BADGER, MELES-MELES
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DOI：
10.1007/bf00317441
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发表时间：
1993-10-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
MACDONALD, DW
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
DASILVA, J;WOODROFFE, R;MACDONALD, DW
自欧洲獾（Meles meles L.）虽然它们在其地理范围的部分区域形成不合作的群体，但在其他地方是孤独的，它们的社会系统一直是关于食肉动物群体进化的辩论的中心。在最近对非合作社会性模型的回顾中，Woodroffe和Macdonald（1993）提出了支持两种假设的证据，这两种假设认为獾群体的形成可能是因为食物丰富的栖息地的分布，或者挖掘新的小块的经济性，阻止了群体领土划分为个体领土。我们目前的数据獾的空间组织的响应减少食物斑块分散，所带来的转换蚯蚓贫耕地蚯蚓丰富的牧场在15年的时间。这种蚯蚓丰富的栖息地分布的变化伴随着领土分裂，促进了新的sets的挖掘。这表明，在研究开始时，sett网站的可用性并没有限制领土的大小。然而，塞特分布确实定义了子领土的大小和结构。我们还表明，在食物丰富的栖息地的可用性的领土之间的变化反映在居住在他们的群体的繁殖率和体重，虽然没有检测到的影响组的大小。
Since European badgers (Meles meles L.) form non-cooperative groups in parts of their geographic range, but are solitary elsewhere, their social systems have been at the centre of a debate about the evolution of group living in the Carnivora. In a recent review of models of non-cooperative sociality, Woodroffe and Macdonald (1993) presented evidence in favour of two hypotheses, which suggested that badger groups might form because either the distribution of blocks of food-rich habitat, or the economics of excavating new setts, prevented the division of group territories into individual territories. We present data upon the response of badger spatial organisation to a reduction in food-patch dispersion, brought about by the conversion of earthworm-poor arable land to earthworm-rich pasture over a 15-year period. This change in the distribution of earthworm-rich habitats was accompanied by territory fission, facilitated by the excavation of new setts. This indicates that the availability of sett sites had not constrained territory size at the start of the study. However, sett distribution did define the size and configuration of the daughter territories. We also show that variation among territories in the availability of food-rich habitats was reflected in the reproductive rates and body weights of the groups that inhabited them, although there was no detectable effect upon group size.