1. The overabundance of resources leads to small but exclusive home ranges in Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) on Bering Island
- Author
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Yulia Mikhnevich, M. E. Goltsman, Anton Pletenev, Elena Kruchenkova, and Vyacheslav V. Rozhnov
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Rookery ,biology ,Vulpes ,Range (biology) ,010604 marine biology & hydrobiology ,Home range ,Territoriality ,biology.organism_classification ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,biology.animal ,Lagopus ,Arctic fox ,Physical geography ,Fur seal ,General Agricultural and Biological Sciences - Abstract
The Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), occupying tundra habitats with highly variable resource distribution, is a convenient research model for studying the impact of food availability on space use. Previous studies have shown that the Arctic fox home ranges can vary from 4 to 125 km2. In areas with abundant food resources, home range sizes are smaller and overlap increases. It is theoretically assumed that with an excess of resources, territoriality should disappear. We investigated a fox settlement at the Northern fur seal rookery on Bering Island (North Pacific). We used GPS collars to track nine foxes in the summer of 2014 and 2016. GPS locations were recorded at 5-min intervals. In the home range estimation, we used the Brownian bridge movement model. We also calculated home range sizes using 100% minimum convex polygon (MCP100) and 95% fixed kernel methods to compare our results with previous studies. Home ranges were extremely small with an average of 0.5 km2 (range of 0.2–0.9 km2) by Brownian Bridge and 0.7 km2 (0.3–1.4 km2) by MCP100. We revealed no sex differences in home range size but discovered strong differentiation of activity spatial concentration between males and females. We found a surprisingly small overlap between neighboring foxes, reflecting high territoriality. This runs counter to the trend expected with an overabundant food source. We assume that the combination of the super small size of the home ranges and their exclusivity may be a feature of the island fox land tenure system, which prevents inbreeding and deters infanticide.
- Published
- 2021