Journal
BEHAVIOUR
Volume 152, Issue 10, Pages 1391-1412Publisher
BRILL ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
DOI: 10.1163/1568539X-00003284
Keywords
helpers; home range; overlap areas; resource holding; rodents; sex; territoriality
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Funding
- Gran Paradiso National Park
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (Zoology section), University of Pavia
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
- Canada Research Chair Committee
- University of Pavia (Italy)
- Bourse d'excellence pour les cycles superieurs de l'Universite du Quebec a Montreal (Canada)
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In social mammals, territory size and shape vary according to the number and strength of neighbour individuals competing for resources. Two main theories have been proposed to explain this variability: the Group Augmentation (GA) and the realized Resource Holding Potential (rRHP) hypotheses. The first states that the outcome of the interactions among groups depends on the total number of individuals in the group while the second states that only the number of animals directly involved in intergroup competition determines this outcome. We collected data on space use of individually tagged Alpine marmots (Marmota marmota), a cooperative breeding species that overlaps part of its territory with neighbouring groups. In accordance with the rRHP hypothesis, we found that groups having higher proportion of helpers, rather than higher total number of individuals, had lower percentage of the territory overlapping with neighbouring groups and a larger area available for individual exclusive use.
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