CAREER: Individual Variation in Dispersal Through a Social Landscape: Causes and Consequences

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Young animals must often leave their birthplace and search for a new home before producing their own offspring; such movement between natal and breeding locations is known as natal dispersal. Dispersal behavior underlies many ecological processes. For example, individual movement across the landscape during dispersal provides crucial ecological connectivity in natural populations. However, extraordinarily little is known about how young animals navigate the complex social and ecological environments they encounter during dispersal. This project will use the brush mouse (Peromyscus boylii) as a model system to answer the following questions: 1) How do pre-existing behavioral differences among individuals influence dispersal movements? 2) How do social interactions with resident adults affect the behavior of juveniles as they move through the landscape? 3) How are survival and reproductive success affected by the interplay of socioecological conditions and individual dispersal strategies? This project will utilize a new automated animal tracking system, social network approaches, and genetic tools to develop a more complete understanding of dispersal dynamics in a natural population of brush mice. This project includes multiple opportunities for training and outreach. Through a multi-institution undergraduate course, students will collaborate across campuses using a wilderness wireless network and social media to coordinate field research projects, collect data, and communicate their experiences to a wider audience. Outreach activities introducing elementary school students to the tracking technology employed in the field research will be developed and distributed. Education and outreach activities will be integrated online: a research blog written by project participants will document the movements of radiotracked animals, social networking sites will allow course participants to communicate their experiences from the field, and outreach activities based on field research methods and data will be made freely available online.